THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


T'ROPKRTY    >F* 

F.  STEWART 

Instructor  of  Dand  and 

Orchestral  Instruments 

?*f>l»lNODALIi,   ARK. 


THE 

SOCIALIZATION 
OF  HUMANITY 


AN  ANALYSIS  AND  SYNTHESIS  OF  THE  PHE- 
NOMENA OF  NATURE,  LIFE,  MIND  AND 
SOCIETY  THROUGH  THE  LAW 
OF   REPETITION 


A   SYSTEM   OF  MONISTIC  PHILOSOPHY 


BY 

CHARLES  KENDALL  FRANKLIN 


CHICAGO 
CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY 

1904 


COPYRIGHT,  1904, 

BT 
CHAKLS8  II.  KERB  A  COMPANY 


JOHN  P.  MIM""l«C3H33far.|n'°*'"a  CLARK  IT. 
MINTfR,  eiNOIR ^9         *f^       OMIOAOO,  IlLINOIt 


HM 
51 


PREFACE 

The  object  of  this  investigation  is  to  trace  physical,  organic 
and  social  phenomena  to  their  sources  in  order  to  discover 
their  laws,  so  that  the  subsequent  expenditure  of  energy  in 
nature,  life,  mind  and  society  may  be  determined  for  human 
welfare.  It  will  necessitate  reviewing  all  of  the  great  con- 
cepts of  the  race,  matter,  motion,  life,  mind  and  society, — 
and  will  result  in  an  attempt  at  a  complete  orientation  of  the 
race  and  the  establishment  of  the  principles  which  will  lead 
to  the  democratization  and  socialization  of  humanity.  The 
magnitude  of  the  undertaking  need  not  deter  us,  for  it  is  by 
attempting  the  impossible  that  we  accomplish  what  we  are 
capable  of. 

Few  persons  think  outside  of  their  inherited  spheres.  A 
scientist  seldom  thinks  it  possible  to  find  instruction  in  the 
life  of  a  common  man  or  the  works  of  a  theologian;  while 
the  common  man  passes  scientific  works  by  with  the  belief  in 
their  impracticability,  whereas  in  religion  a  man  who  reaches 
that  eminence  in  thought  whereby  he  can  appreciate  the 
religion  of  other  peoples  is  reviled  by  his  associates  for  having 
no  religion  himself.  A  statesman  who  habitually  dared  to 
see  any  merit  in  the  measures  of  the  opposition,  or  who 
demanded  progress  instead  of  order,  would  be  looked  upon 
with  suspicion  by  all  and  attacked  with  avidity  by  rivals  in 
his  own  party.  All  of  this  narrowness,  prejudice  against 
progress  and  predilection  for  existing  things,  has  been  abso- 
lutely necessary  in  the  long  evolution  of  the  race  in  order  to 
make  it  conservative  enough  to  hold  fast  to  that  which  is 
good  and  thus  avoid  racial  deterioration  by  following  unwar- 
ranted variations  from  the  racial  type  in  political,  aesthetic, 
mental,  moral  and  religions  life.  But  progress  is  as  neces- 

iii 


1524852 


iv  PREFACE 

sary  to  racial  salvation  as  order,  because  the  environment  is 
constantly  changing  and  the  race  must  be  adapted  to  it.  In 
general,  however,  order  in  society  is  more  essential  to  racial 
salvation  than  progress,  for  in  the  long  history  of  the  race 
more  tribes  and  nations  have  been  destroyed  by  following 
unwarranted  variations  than  by  holding  fast  to  inherited 
beliefs  and  practices,  no  matter  how  absurd,  so  they  bound 
the  tribe  or  nation  together.  Hence  the  powers  of  conserv- 
atism, through  the  struggle  for  existence,  between  tribe  and 
tribe,  nation  and  nation,  have  become  stronger  than  the 
powers  of  progress,  and  are  so  to-day,  despite  the  great  intel- 
lectuality of  the  Xineteenth  Century.  Yet  there  comes  a 
time  in  every  civilization  when  it  must  vary  or  else  become 
extinct  according  to  the  law  of  natural  selection, — a  time 
when  rigid  social  order  becomes  an  evil  in  itself,  so  that  the 
original  function  of  social  order,  the  preservation  of  human- 
ity, is  perverted  by  protecting  forms  that  hinder  the  further 
growth  of  the  race ;  then  the  principles  of  progress  are  more 
sacred  than  those  of  order  and  are  promulgated  by  the 
choicest  spirits  of  humanity.  This  is  the  condition  of  affairs 
in  western  civilization  to-day. 

It  stands  to  reason  that  our  unscientific  ancestors  were  of 
necessity  incompetent  to  form  a  correct  conception  of  the 
universe,  to  originate  a  true  theory  of  things,  to  elaborate  a 
scientific  system  of  philosophy,  to  give  the  true  reasons  and 
causes  of  life,  mind  and  society,  or  propound  a  rational 
explanation  of  religion  that  will  satisfy  the  demands  of  the 
scientific  mind  of  to-day,  or  establish  a  scientific  system  of 
society  that  mil  render  justice  to  all  men,  thus  realizing  the 
highest  development  that  each  and  every  one  is  competent  to 
attain.  The  first  glimpse  the  human  mind  gets  at  the  truth 
is  an  allegorical  conception ;  this  is  gradually  replaced  in  the 
conrse  of  centuries  by  the  true  explanation.  We  can  trace 
the  development  of  the  nnsystematized  popular  beliefs  of  the 
people  from  crude  mythologies,  mystic  metaphysics  and 


PREFACE  v 

dreamy  philosophies  up  to  the  scientific  thought  of  the 
present.  But  to-day  all  men  in  authority,  as  in  every  age, 
authors,  teachers,  artists,  scientists,  business  men,  statesmen, 
men  of  the  world — all  have  an  approximately  correct  con- 
ception of  things  and  act  upon  it  regardless  of  pretensions ; 
however,  they  often  try  to  persuade  themselves  that  they  still 
believe  in  the  allegorical  theory  of  their  ancestors ;  and  sedu- 
lously avoid  any  thorough  investigation  of  nature,  life,  mind 
and  society,  for  fear  of  becoming  unorthodox,  skeptical  and 
atheistic.  Intellectually  it  is  with  us  to-day  as  with  the 
Romans  in  the  first  centuries.  Gibbon  says : 

"The  various  modes  of  worship  which  prevailed  in  the 
Roman  world  were  all  considered  by  the  people  as  equally 
true ;  by  the  philosopher  as  equally  false ;  and  by  the  magis- 
trate as  equally  useful." 

The  world  to-day  morally  is  in  the  same  condition  as  when 
Buddha  of  India  came  to  preach  a  new  salvation.  Again  the 
blind  are  leading  the  blind.  It  is  in  the  same  condition  it 
was  in  when  Jesus  of  Nazareth  preached  the  Gospel  of  the 
Brotherhood  of  Man.  Again  unbelievers  are  putting  reform- 
ers to  death  for  impiety.  It  is  in  the  same  condition  as 
when  Socrates  of  Athens  taught  men  how  to  live.  Again  do 
the  teachers  of  men  fail  to  enter  into  the  heaven  of  Orienta- 
tion prepared  for  them  by  the  ages  and  refuse  to  let  anyone 
else  enter ;  and  as  in  the  days  of  old  they  add  intolerance  to 
their  conservatism  by  persecuting  those  who  attempt  to  break 
the  incrustations  of  the  past  to  let  the  light  of  truth  lead 
humanity  to  its  ultimate  goal.  The  world  is  in  the  same 
intellectual  condition  as  when  Francis  Bacon  wrote  his  incom- 
parable works  Novum  Organum  and  the  Advancement  of 
Learning.  To-day  collegiate  scholarship  in  the  name  of 
science  clogs  social  progress,  as  in  the  days  of  Bacon,  in  the 
name  of  Classic  Learning,  it  stemmed  intellectual  progress. 
The  world  is  ripe  for  a  true  system  of  philosophy,  for  a  right 
system  of  living. 


vi  PREFACE 

Unlike  the  world's  passage  from  Polytheism  to  Mono- 
theism, from  Paganism  to  Christianity,  from  Feudalism  to 
Capitalism  heretofore  made,  the  transition  from  Theology  to 
Science,  from  Capitalism  to  Cooperation  will  be  conscious. 

In  our  survey  of  nature  we  shall  find  that  it  makes  no 
difference  with  the  elements  and  energies  "of  nature  how  an 
end  is  accomplished.  And  it  makes  no  difference  with 
society.  Human  perfection,  for  example,  cannot  be  attained 
except  through  property.  Primitive  humanity  did  not  have 
it  and  did  not  know  how  to  produce  it  collectively.  Hence 
the  race,  not  being  able  to  originate  property  by  collective 
ownership,  owing  to  lack  of  intelligence  and  morality,  ceased 
to  be  social,  forsook  the  social  acquisition  of  property  and 
permitted  individual  ownership  because  it  was  the  only  way 
open  to  primitive  humanity  whereby  it  could  produce  the 
necessary  wealth  for  the  highest  human  development.  Even 
to-day  with  us  wealth  can  best  be  produced  and  conserved 
by  having  the  capital  of  the  race  controlled  by  individuals ; 
society,  despite  our  boasted  intelligence  and  morality,  can- 
not do  it,  hence  privileged  classes  still  usurp  this  social 
function.  But  it  will  not  always  be  so. 

Government  is  certainly  a  function  of  the  people;  yet,  if 
they  cannot  govern  themselves,  they  accept  a  king  or  any 
form  of  government,  an  aristocracy,  or  a  plutocracy,  so  it 
conserves  their  energies.  It  is  all  a  question  of  the 
expenditure  of  energy,  no  matter  the  method.  In  society, 
as  in  nature,  if  the  best  cannot  be  had,  then  the  next  best  is 
taken  with  apparently  as  much  liking,  to  be  discarded,  how- 
ever, as  soon  as  something  better  is  developed.  It  is  so 
throughout  civilization.  There  is  no  reason  whatever  to 
believe  that  the  race  will  not  adopt  a  higher  form  of  civili- 
zation as  soon  as  it  finds  the  method.  By  the  natural  law 
of  the  expenditure  of  energy  it  must  do  so. 

There  is  scarcely  an  institution,  no  matter  how  vile,  that 
has  not  served  the  race  in  its  long  struggle  upward.  Slavery 


PREFACE  vii 

made  man  industrious.  There  is  scarcely  a  vice  that  has 
not  been  of  incalculable  usefulness.  The  passions  are  still 
so  strong  in  man  that  one  sees  that  he  was  never  meant  to 
be  a  human  being,  only  an  animal,  that  his  social  nature  is 
an  excrescence  which,  even  to-day,  has  a  lively  time  in  the 
struggle  for  existence  to  maintain  itself.  And  some  of  our 
beloved  institutions  will  some  day  be  seen  to  be  only  insti- 
tutions of  necessity  and  not  of  intelligence  and  morality. 
When  social  mind,  what  is  called  in  this  book  the  moral  and 
social  senses,  is  fully  understood,  nature  and  humanity  will 
be  read  as  a  book  that  heretofore  has  been  in  an  unknown 
language,  and  the  future  of  humanity  will  be  predicted 
approximately,  and  the  race  will  determine  its  history  as 
the  individual  to-day  determines  his  conduct. 

To-day  as  always  in  history,  deep  insight  into  nature,  life, 
mind  and  society  is  not  the  chief  merit  of  the  philosopher, 
but  moral  courage  to  speak  the  naked  truth.  Almost  any 
scientist  to-day  would  be  competent  to  give  an  approximately 
correct  conception  of  the  universe  and  man's  relation  to  it, 
and  thus  inaugurate  the  ultimate  standard  of  living;  but 
owing  to  education,  position  in  life,  sinecures,  to  policy,  to 
lack  of  fanaticism,  which  blinds  one  to  criticism  and  makes 
one  attempt  the  impossible,  no  one  dare  do  it ;  all  prefer  to 
adumbrate  their  meaning  in  technical  terms,  ambiguous 
literary  concepts,  or  allegorical  symbolism.  It  is  most 
unreasonable  to  expect  that  a  writer  would  dare  express 
the  most  advanced  thought,  so  any  common  person  could 
understand  it,  on  such  subjects  as  God,  the  immortality  of 
the  soul,  the  origin  of  life,  the  explanation  of  mind,  the 
philosophy  of  society;  or  even  discuss  economic  and  moral 
problems  in  the  light  of  the  most  advanced  thought,  when 
the  institution  from  which  he  derives  his  living  is  founded 
upon  concepts  taken  from  tradition  and  supported  by  endow- 
ments that  are  contributed  with  the  tacit  if  not  avowed 
understanding  that  only  the  views  upholding  orthodoxy  and 


viii  PREFACE 

capitalism  shall  be  taught.  What  we  see  in  the  human  race 
to-day  in  regard  to  the  difficulties  of  expressing  the  naked 
truth  has  always  existed. 

While  the  instinct  of  religion,  the  instinct  to  do  some 
great  service  for  the  race, — to  be  a  hero,  to  do  good,  to  sacri- 
fice one's  self  for  humanity —  is  in  all  of  us;  yet,  when  it 
conflicts  with  present  success,  destroys  personal  ambition, 
practically  closes  all  the  careers  of  great  emoluments,  defeats 
love,  and  makes  existence  itself  precarious,  we  forego  its 
expression,  acquiesce  in  orthodox  views  and  live  a  life  of  con- 
servatism, respectability  and  hypocrisy.  Of  necessity  the 
most  original  thought  must  be  unorthodox,  must  be  the  work 
of  a  free-lance,  a  Bohemian,  a  fanatic  for  truth's  sake;  for 
they  alone  have  the  opportunity  to  discover  the  truth  and 
the  moral  courage  to  speak  it. 

So  the  merit  we  ask  consideration  for  in  this  book  is  not 
originality  of  thought,  yet  there  is  original  thought ;  is  not 
literary  art,  perhaps  not  totally  absent;  is  not  profound 
erudition,  although  not  totally  wanting;  but  common  honesty 
in  stating  in  simple,  unmistakable  language  the  knowledge 
of  the  race,  that  others  have  only  dared  adumbrate  in  clouds 
of  rhetoric  or  showers  of  scientific  technicalities. 

CHARLES  KENDALL  FRANKLIN. 

CHICAGO,  Jan.  10,  1904. 


CONTENDS 

PREFACE       .         .         .         .     iii 

PAGE 

CHAPTEE  I  • 

An  Analysis  of  Nature,    Life,  Mind  and    Society — A 

Naturalistic  Concept  of  Things       ....       1 

CHAPTER  II 

The  Law  of  Repetition          .         .         .         .         .         .21 

CHAPTER  III 
The  Origin  of  Life       . 31 

CHAPTER  IV 

The  Physics  of  the  Senses  and  the  Intellect  .         .         .38 

CHAPTER  V 

The  Chemistry  of  the  Senses,  the  Emotions   and  the 

Will       .        .       ...._•..»,       •         •         •         •     53 

CHAPTER  VI 

Animal  Mechanics         .       > 62 

CHAPTER  VII 
Realism  and  Idealism    .....         .         .         .         .76 

CHAPTER  VIII 

Naturalism  versus  Supernaturalism        .         .         .         .86 

CHAPTER  IX 

The  Expenditure  of  Energy   Controlled   by  Mind:    A 

Fourth  Law  of  Motion 107 

ix 


CHAPTER  X 

PAGE 

The  Expenditure  of  Energy    Controlled  by  the  Moral 
Sense:  A  Fifth  Law  of  Motion       .         .         .         .120 

CHAPTER  XI 

The  Expenditure  of  Energy  Controlled  by  the  Social 

Sense:  A  Sixth  Law  of  Motion       .         .         .         .102 

CHAPTER  XII 
The  Supreme  Law  of  Ethics 201 

CHAPTER  XIII 
Religion 238 

CHAPTER  XIV 
The  Social  Organism 271 

CHAPTER  XV 
Social  Dynamics   .         .  .         .         .         .         .  297 

CHAPTER  XVI 

The  God  and  Immortality  Hypothesis :  The  Theological 

Social  Sense 312 

CHAPTER  XVII 

Aspects  of  Scientific  Morality 348 

CHAPTER  XVIII 
The  Final  Synthesis  of  Nature,  Life,  Mind  and  Society  .  371 

CHAPTER  XIX 
What  the  Socialization  of  Humanity  Will  Accomplish    .  397 

CHAPTER  XX 
Forestalling  Criticism   ....  .419 

CHAPTER  XXI 

Applications  and  Conclusions        .         .  449 


Whoever  hesitates  to  utter  that  which  he  thinks  the  highest  truth,  lest  it 
may  be  too  much  in  advance  of  the  time,  may  reassure  himself  by  looking  at 
his  acts  from  an  impersonal  point  of  view.  Let  him  duly  realize  the  fact  that 
opinion  is  the  agency  through  which  character  adapts  external  arrangements 
to  itself— that  his  opinion  rightly  forms  part  of  this  agency— is  a  unit  of 
force,  constituting,  with  other  such  units,  the  general  power  which  works  out 
social  changes;  and  he  will  perceive  that  he  may  properly  give  full  utterance  to 
his  innermost  conviction,  leaving  it  to  produce  what  effect  it  may.  It  is  not  for 
nothing  that  he  has  within  him  these  sympathies  with  some  principles  and 
repugnances  to  others.  He,  with  all  of  his  capacities,  and  aspirations,  and 
beliefs,  is  not  an  accident,  but  a  product  of  the  time.  He  must  remember  that 
while  he  is  a  descendant  of  the  past,  he  is  a  parent  of  the  future,  and  that  his 
thoughts  are  as  children  born  to  him  which  he  may  not  carelessly  let  die.  He, 
like  every  other  man,  may  properly  consider  himself  as  one  of  the  myriad 
agencies  through  whom  works  the  Unknown  Cause ;  and  when  the  Unknown 
Cause  produces  in  him  a  certain  belief,  he  is  thereby  authorized  to  profess 
and  act  out  that  belief.  For  to  render  in  their  highest  sense  the  words  of 
Shakespeare- 
Nature  is  made  better  by  no  mean, 

But  Nature  makes  that  mean :  over  that  art 

Which  you  say  adds  to  Nature,  is  an  art 

That  Nature  makes. 

Not  as  adventitious,  therefore,  will  the  wise  man  regard  the  faith  which  is  in 
him.  The  highest  truth  he  sees  he  will  fearlessly  utter,  knowing  that,  let  what 
may  come  of  it,  he  is  thus  playing  his  right  part  in  the  world— knowing  that  if 
he  can  effect  the  change  that  he  aims  at— well:  if  not— well  also,  though  not  so 
well.  — HBBBEBT  SPENCEB. 

It  has  often  been  said  that  we  ought  to  follow  truth  even  though  no  utility 
can  be  seen  in  it,  because  it  may  have  indirect  utility  which  may  appear  when  it 
is  least  expected;  and  I  would  add  to  this,  that  we  ought  to  be  just  as  anxious 
to  discover  and  root  out  all  error  even  when  no  harm  is  anticipated  from  it, 
because  its  mischief  may  be  very  indirect,  and  may  suddenly  appear  when  we 
do  not  expect  it,  for  all  error  has  poison  at  its  heart.  If  it  is  mind,  if  it  is 
knowledge  that  makes  man  the  lord  of  creation,  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as 
harmless  error,  still  less  venerable  and  holy  error.  And  for  the  consolation  of 
those  who  in  any  way  and  at  any  time  nave  devoted  strength  and  life  to  the 
noble  and  hard  battle  against  error,  I  can  not  refrain  from  adding  that,  so  long 
as  truth  is  absent,  error  will  have  free  play,  as  owls  and  bats  in  the  night ;  but 
sooner  would  we  expect  to  see  the  owls  and  the  bats  drive  back  the  sun  in  the 
eastern  heavens,  than  that  any  truth  that  has  once  been  known  and  distinctly 
and  fully  expressed,  can  ever  again  be  so  utterly  vanquished  and  overcome  that 
the  old  error  shall  once  more  reign  undisturbed  over  its  wide  kingdom.  This  is 
the  power  of  truth;  its  conquest  is  slow  and  laborious,  but  if  once  the  victory  be 
gained,  it  can  never  be  wrested  back  again.  —  ABTHUB  SCHOPBNHAUEB. 


The  Socialization  of  Humanity 

CHAPTER   I 

AN    ANALYSIS    OF    NATURE,     LIFE,     MIND     AND     SOCIETY — 
A    NATURALISTIC    CONCEPT    OF    THINGS 

I. 

In  beginning  a  naturalistic  investigation  of  the  phenom- 
ena of  nature,  the  first  requisite  is  a  scientific  concept  of  man 
and  the  universe.  Humanity  is  no  longer  looked  at  from  a 
traditional  point  of  view.  A  common  consensus  of  the  thought 
of  western  civilization  places  man  at  the  head  of  the  animal 
kingdom  and  explains  his  existence  by  the  law  of  evolution. 
The  human  race  has  lived  upon  the  earth  for  millions  of 
years.  It  has  reached  the  age  of  conscious  existence. 
After  arriving  at  maturity,  and  rejecting  the  traditional 
explanation  of  things,  and  looking  about  us  at  nature, 
studying  matter  and  energy  in  chemistry  and  physics,  investi- 
gating the  energies  of  life  and  mind  in  biology  and  psychol- 
ogy, and  meditating  upon  the  phenomena  of  human  thought, 
feeling  and  human  conduct  in  economics  and  sociology,  we 
are  ushered  into  the  real  mystery  of  things,  and,  not  to  find 
a  solution,  is  to  suffer  intolerable  mental  pain  at  our  baffle- 
ment. Hence  man's  eternal  search  for  truth.  The  life  of 
man  is  so  brief  and  the  historic  period  of  humanity  so  short 
that,  owing  to  lack  of  time  for  observation,  and  time  for  the 
accumulation  of  materials,  the  action  and  interaction  of  the 
various  energies  of  nature,  even  to-day,  are  almost  incom- 
prehensible to  both  the  individual  and  the  race.  Given  the 
energies  now  at  work  in  nature,  the  problem  is,  how  to 

1 


2          THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

explain  human  existence  in  naturalistic  terms,  to  answer  the 
question :  What  is  man?  If  science  has  taught  us  anything, 
it  is  that  nature  is  self-sufficing  and  that  life,  mind  and 
morality  are  but  manifestations  of  the  simpler  energies  of 
nature;  that  society,  the  animal  organism,  plants,  chemical 
compounds  are  but  forms  of  matter  -undergoing  transforma- 
tion, one  as  natural  as  the  other.  None,  however,  but  an 
oriented  mind  can  trace  the  evolution  of  life  from  the  primai 
mist  of  the  nascent  solar  system  to  the  highly-developed 
product,  social  man,  as  seen  in  western  civilization  to-day ; 
for  the  uninitiated  are  soon  lost  in  the  labyrinths  of  ignorance 
and  error.  Nothing  except  a  profound  study  of  astronomy, 
physics,  chemistry,  geology,  biology,  psychology  and  sociology 
can  enable  one  to  make  a  naturalistic  concept  of  man  take 
the  place  of  the  simple  concept  of  tradition.  But  by  con- 
stantly pondering  on  the  universal  process  of  nature,  man 
can  at  last  trace  his  kinship  to  matter  and  energy,  and 
understand  his  antecedents  in  the  primal  elements  and  ener- 
gies of  nature.  "We  are  a  great  mystery  to  ourselves — the 
unraveling,  however,  is  not  accomplished  by  wonder  and 
amazement,  but  instead  by  honest,  untiring  study,  patient 
and  candid  investigation. 

II 

The  question  may  be  asked :  What  is  the  use  of  know- 
ing what  we  really  are  and  what  the  universe  is?  Such 
fundamental  knowledge  is  of  the  same  use  as  all  knowledge ; 
that  man  may  the  better  adapt  himself  to  his  environment 
in  nature  and  society.  The  function  of  all  knowledge  is  to 
acquaint  us  with  our  environment  so  that  we  may  adapt  our- 
selves to  it,  and  thereby  perpetuate  our  existence.  General 
concepts  really  have  more  effect  upon  us  than  special  con- 
cepts. It  is  really  of  more  importance  to  know  what  the 
universe  is,  and  how  it  is  run,  and  what  man  is,  and  his 
relation  to  the  universe,  than  the  special  knowledge,  where 


A  NATURALISTIC  CONCEPT  OF  THINGS        3 

we  are  to  get  our  daily  bread ;  for  the  getting  of  our  daily 
bread,  primarily  depends  upon  our  concept  of  the  universe 
and  our  relation  to  it.  A  savage,  whose  theory  of  things  is 
that  back  of  every  phenomenon  is  a  monster  whose  wrath 
must  be  appeased  by  human  sacrifice,  is  made  a  savage  by 
such  a  philosophy  as  much  as,  being  a  savage,  he  originates 
such  an  explanation  of  things.  For  if  such  a  savage  be 
reared  and  educated  in  civilized  society,  and  be  taught  a 
naturalistic  theory  of  things,  he  will  be  horrified  at  the  con- 
duct of  his  savage  brothers.  This  shows  us  that  the  quality 
of  life  of  a  given  person,  ourselves  for  example,  depends 
upon  his  theory  of  things  far  more  than  the  accidents  of 
every-day  life.  "What  we  are  here  for  depends  upon  what 
being  here  consists  of.  Whether  we  are  here  to  realize  the 
highest  possible  development  of  all  of  our  powers,  physical, 
mental  and  moral,  the  naturalistic  concept  of  man  in  nature ; 
or  that  we  are  here  at  the  caprice  and  pleasure  of  an  imagin- 
ary God  in  the  sky  in  league  with  his  vicegerents  and 
minions,  priests  and  kings,  here  on  earth,  who  interpret  our 
destiny  to  be  service  to  God  and  them  in  this  world,  to  be 
compensated  for  in  an  hypothetical  world  back  of  things,  an 
unthinkable  space  in  which  we  are  transformed  into  impos- 
sible beings,  to  live  an  inconceivable  existence,  for  an  inter- 
minable length  of  time, — the  concept  of  tradition,  is  the 
all-important  question  that  not  only  determines  our  daily 
bread,  but  the  quality  of  our  complete  life.  The  economic 
basis  of  society  is  determined  by  man's  theory  of  things. 
The  socialization  of  the  race  can  only  be  realized  in  a  state 
based  on  a  scientific  concept  of  things,  and  a  church  that 
makes  morality  the  stimulus  of  religion.  If  a  naturalistic 
theory  of  things,  man  and  the  universe,  is  accepted,  then 
real  facts  are  the  only  determinants  of  man's  position  in  life; 
if  the  traditional  concept  is  accepted,  then  man  is  a  slave  to 
an  imaginary  god  or  devil  and  their  vicegerents  and  minions 
here  on  earth,  and  existence  is  a  fixed  condition  of  servitude, 


4          THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

instead  of  a  glorious  career  of  development.  It  is  all  impor- 
tant that  the  true  concept  of  man  and  the  universe  be  the 
basis,  not  only  of  the  life  of  the  individual,  but  the  greater 
life  of  society.  Then  whatever  life  is,  each  individual  will 
get  his  share  of  it  determined  by  the  exact  facts  in  the  case. 
The  real  defects  in  western  civilization  cannot  be  remedied 
except  by  an  application  of  the  true  philosophy  of  man  and 
the  universe.  It  is  upon  this  foundation  that  humanity  can 
develop  a  system  of  morality  that  will  enable  a  person  to  do 
unto  others  as  he  would  have  others  do  unto  him ;  and  the 
minions  of  society,  created  by  the  traditional  theory  of  things, 
will  be  of  the  past,  and  the  perfection  of  the  common  indi- 
vidual will  be  the  function,  not  only  of  nature,  but  of 

society. 

Ill 

There  is  no  object  in  all  nature  so  bewildering  to  con- 
template as  the  starry  heavens;    nothing  so   futile  as   the 
attempt  to  form  a  concept  of  the   universe  out   of    the 
seeming  chaos.     The  constitution  of  our  minds  demands  a 
philosophy  of  everything,    yet   the   contemplation   of    the 
universe  shows  us  in  all  of  our  investigations  that  it  is 
unlimited  and  absolutely  inconceivable.     The  human  mind 
is  not  commensurate  with  the  universe,  but  only  nature 
immediately  around  us.     The  universe  is  infinite,  the  human 
mind  finite.     In  order  to  conceive  a  thing  we  must  get 
around  it,  limit  it,  but  for  every  limit  the  mind  places  upon 
the  universe  for  conceptual   purposes,   there    appears    an 
unlimited  universe  beyond.    We  give  up  the  task  in  despair. 
The  universe  is  framed  on  seemingly  an  altogether  different 
plan  from  that  of  the  human  mind.     As  far  as  the  most 
powerful  telescope  can  reach  into  the  depths  of  space,  we 
find  suns  and  planets  in  the  same  profusion  as  in  our  own 
immediate  vicinity.    As  the  human  mind  is  a  reaction  of  the 
environment,  as  we  shall  find  in  our  investigation,   some 
future  discovery  will  render  the  universe  conceivable,  as  the 

^^*rf 


A  NATURALISTIC  CONCEPT  OF  THINGS        5 

discovery  of  the  rotundity  of  the  earth,  and  the  formulation 
of  the  law  of  gravitation,  made  a  true  concept  of  the  earth 
possible.  In  the  course  of  its  brilliant  career,  the  human 
mind  will  meet  with  experiences  that  will  render  possible 
concepts  now  unthinkable.  But  to-day  there  is  nothing  in 
all  the  realm  of  thought  that  shows  the  impenetrable  mystery 
of  things  and  human  impotency  more  than  man's  bafflement 
in  contemplating  the  unlimited  space  of  the  starry  depths. 
In  the  presence  of  this  awful,  infinite  phenomenon,  man 
comes  to  himself  and  realizes  that  he  is  not  a  minion  of 
nature,  as  tradition  has  caused  him  to  believe,  but  instead,  a 
being  unfavored,  unfriended  by  the  Infinite,  only  the  ulti- 
mate product  of  the  ceaseless  strivings  of  the  elements  and 
energies  of  nature. 

The  human  situation  looked  at  from  the  naturalistic  point 
of  view  may  have  a  grimness  about  it  that  is  calculated  to 
deter  timid  souls  from  further  investigation ;  however,  it  was 
no  such  spirit  as  this  that  made  of  man  the  being  he  is 
to-day;  but  instead  the  opposite  spirit — that  of  courage,  love 
of  truth,  and  faith  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  humanity  in 
solving  the  riddle  of  the  universe.  It  may  be  poetic  to  stand 
in  awe  before  the  mysterious  phenomena  of  nature,  but  it  is 
scientific  to  try  to  unravel  them  for  the  benefit  of  humanity. 
And  it  is  in  this  spirit  that  we  attempt  the  stupenduous 
problem  of  Whence,  Whither,  Why ! 

The  universe  is  an  organization  so  vast  that  in  comparison 
with  the  animal  organism,  or  the  social  organization,  the 
analogy  seems  to  be  a  mere  figure  of  speech ;  however,  it  is 
not  so,  but  instead  a  fundamental  truth  of  philosophy.* 

•  "The  celebrated  Robert  Boyle  regarded  the  Universe  as  a  machine;  Mr.  Car- 
lyle  prefers  regarding  it  as  a  tree.  He  loves  the  image  of  the  umbrageous 
Igdrasil  better  than  that  of  the  Strasburg  clock.  A  machine  may  be  denned  as 
an  organism  with  life  and  direction  outside;  a  tree  may  be  denned  as  an  organ- 
ism with  life  and  direction  within.  In  the  light  of  these  definitions,  I  close  with 
the  concept  of  Carlyle.  The  order  and  energies  of  the  Universe  I  hold  to  be 
inherent  and  not  imposed  from  without;  the  expression  of  fixed  law,  and  not 
arbitrary  will,  exercised  by  what  Carlyle  would  call  an  Almighty  clock-maker. 


6          THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

The  units  of  its  structure  are  the  various  elements;  its 
functions  are  performed  by  the  physical  energies.  As  an 
organization  the  universe  is  the  least  developed  of  any  we 
know,  yet  its  structure  is  so  arranged  that  its  energies  invari- 
ably expend  themselves  in  the  same  ways,  such  expenditure 
being  natural  laws.  It  is  difficult  for  the  mind  of  man  to 
understand  what  is  going  on  out  in  the  universe  beyond  the 
solar  system.  It  is  so  far  away  from  him,  and  heretofore,  it 
has  been  deemed  to  have  so  little  or  no  influence  upon  his 
destiny,  that  whether  or  not  he  knew  anything  about  it  was 
thought  to  make  no  difference.  But  to-day  it  is  otherwise; 
for  in  our  age  of  science  a  rational  system  of  living  must  be 
based  upon  a  rational  concept  of  the  universe.  It  is  the 
starting  point  in  the  solution  of  the  problems  that  immedi- 
ately confront  man ;  it  is  the  foundation  of  an  oriented 
civilization. 

The  universal  process  seems  to  be  a  development,  starting 
with  the  unaggregated  nebulous  matter  of  the  primal  solar 
system,  and  ending  in  the  social  aggregate  as  seen  in  the 
civilized  world  to-day.  That  there  was  a  time  when  the  laws 
of  the  solar  system  as  we  know  them  did  not  exist,  is  cer- 
tainly true.  There  can  be  no  laws  of  hydrostatics  until  some 
liquid  succeeds  in  existing;  and  no  science  of  statics  until 
solids  are  developed;  and  the  same  laws  of  development 
found  to  obtain  in  biology  and  sociology  hold  sway  in  inor- 
ganic nature,  the  law  of  natural  selection,  and  the  law  of 
repetition.  There  has  been  an  evolution  of  chemical  com* 
'pounds  the  same  as  there  has  been  an  evolution  of  plants, 
,  animals  and  human  society.  The  laws  of  natural  selection 
and  repetition  hold  good  throughout  nature.  Just  as  we  see 
the  social  organization  to-day  developing  structure  and  laws 
to  suit  its  structure,  that .  is,  variable,  determinate  ways  of 

But  the  two  conceptions  are  not  so  much  opposed  to  each  other  after  all.  They 
equally  imply  the  Interdependence  and  harmonious  interaction  of  parts,  and 
the  subordination  of  the  Individual  powers  of  the  universal  organism  to  the 
working  of  the  whole."— PROF.  JOHN  TTNDALL,  Science  of  Man. 


A  NATURALISTIC  CONCEPT  OF  THINGS        7 

expending  its  energies,  so  the  primitive  solar  system  had  to 
develop  structure  and  function  out  of  its  units  and  energies, 
whatever  they  may  have  been.  As  soon  as  nature  in  the 
solar  system  developed  inorganic  substances  of  a  highly  com- 
plex kind,  they  became  the  factors  for  the  development  of 
vegetable  and  animal  organisms.  As  soon  as  animal  organ- 
isms reached  a  certain  degree  of  individuality,  they  became 
the  factors  of  social  aggregations,  until  finally  with  the 
development  of  man,  society  is  produced.  It  will  be  seen 
that  nature  is  but  a  series  of  organizations  developed  from 
organizations ;  and  what  was  the  beginning  and  what  is  to 
be  the  end,  is  left  to  hypothesis  and  deduction.  Nature 
outside  of  our  limited  sphere  is  a  perplexing  mystery. 
Knowledge  begins  with  matter  and  energy,  and  ends  by 
explaining  all  nature  in  their  terms.  We  are  limited  on  the 
one  hand  by  the  infinitely  little,  the  atom ;  on  the  other  by  the 
infinitely  large,  the  universe.  Between  these  two  extremes, 
the  human  mind  is  adequate  to  classify  all  the  phenomena 
of  nature,  and  give  a  consistent  and  logical  explanation  of 
them.  But  such  immediate  knowledge  of  the  environment 
is  a  key  to  the  whole  universe,  if  we  only  knew  how  to  use  it. 
And  while  the  human  mind  was  developed  with  the  practical 
function  of  adapting  man  to  his  immediate  environment,  yet 
the  theoretical  understanding  of  the  ultimate  phenomena  of 
nature  is  within  its  purview,  as  the  fascination  of  such 
research  attests;  so,  in  our  survey  of  nature,  we  may  as  well, 
first  as  last,  know  that  the  ultimate  secrets  of  the  universe 
are  within  the  limits  of  our  investigation. 

IV 

We  know  a  great  deal  about  matter  in  its  gross  form; 
our  knowledge  is  all  theory  when  it  comes  to  understanding 
its  inmost  nature.  The  dynamic  theory  of  matter  is  that  it 
is  composed  of  centers  of  motion;  that  its  atomic  motions 


8          THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

cause  all  of  its  combinations— first  element,  then  chemical 
compound,  then  organic  compound,  then  social  compounds; 
that  these  bodies  are  poised  by  the  balanced  motions  of  their 
units  in  some  such  way  as  are  the  heavenly  bodies  in  space; 
and  that  the  compounds,  organisms  and  organizations 
formed,  with  their  motions  are  all  the  resultant  of  the  orig- 
inal atomic  motions  as  they  are  conditioneieby  external 

*" -"•"'^^•fe 
energies.* 

But  while  the  atomic  motions,  gravitant  energies,  cause  all 
the  combinations  of  matter;  yet  their  activity  depends  upon 
radiant  energy  in  tfie  form  of  heat,  light,  electricity,  and  so 
forth.  If  the  heat  be  intense  enough,  there  can  be  no  com- 
bination of  matter  at  all,  the  hypothetical  condition  of 
,  matter  at  the  beginning  of  the  solar  system ;  and  if  there 
were  no  heat  at  all,  the  hypothetical  condition  of  matter  when 
the  universal  process  shall  have  been  completed  then,  there 
could  be  n£ combinations  of  matter  at  all.  But  between  these 
two  extremes  the  possibilities  of  the  combinations  of  matter, 
gravitant  energy,  depend  upon  the  various  radiant  energies 
*>  which  form  the  conditions  of  matter  and  determine  its  pos- 
sible combinations. 

As  we  know  nothing  of  the  ultimate  constitution  of 
matter,  so  we  know  nothing  of  the  ultimate  constitution 
of  energy.  Our  minds  can  comprehend  only  manifestations 
of  energy  from  a  utilitarian  point  of  view.  We  know  the 
effects  of  all  energies  upon  ourselves;  but  their 


•Dr.  Michael  Foster  says:  "The  more  these  molecular  problems  of  physi- 
ology are  studied  the  stronger  becomes  the  conviction  that  the  consideration  of 
what  we  call  structure  and  composition,  must  In  harmony  with  the  modern 
teachings  of  physics  be  approached  under  the  dominant  conception  of  modes 
of  motion.  The  physicists  have  led  us  to  consider  the  qualities  of  things  as 
expressions  of  Internal  movements;  even  more  imperatively  does  it  seem  to  us 
that  the  biologist  should  regard  the  qualities  of  protoplasm  including  struc. 
ture  and  composition  as  in  like  manner  the  expression  of  internal  movements. 
He  may  speak  of  protoplasm  as  complex  structure,  but  he  must  strive  to  realize 
that  what  he  means  by  that  is  a  complex  whirl,  an  intricate  dance,  of  which 
chemical  composition,  hlstological  structure  and  gross  configuration  are  so  to 
speak  the  figures;  to  him  the  renewal  of  protoplasm  is  but  the  continuance  of 
the  dance— its  functions  and  actions,  the  transference  of  the  figures." 


A  NATURALISTIC  CONCEPT  OF  THINGS        9 

nature  is  hidden  from  us  by  the  practicality  of  our  senses. 
However,  what  we  lack  in  knowledge  we  make  up  in  theory. 
All  the  manifestations  of  energy  in  nature  have  been  reduced 
to  two  forms :  gravitant  energies,  which  constitute  matter, 
and  radiant  energies,  which  constitute  the  conditions  of 
matter.  The  gravitant  energies  constituting  matter  are  per- 
manent, unchangeable,  yet  in  chemical  and  organic  com- 
pounds, for  the  time  being,  they  lose  their  qualities  and  take 
on  others  seemingly  totally  different,  thus  producing  the 
most  surprising  phenomena,  but  always  holding  within 
themselves  the  power  to  revert  to  their  original  forms  and 
qualities  and  always  doing  so.  For  example,  the  tissues  of 
the  human  body  are  composed  of  hydrogen,  oxygen,  nitrogen 
and  carbon.  The  properties  of  these  specific  substances  are 
for  the  time  being  lost,  and  in  their  combined  form,  they 
take  on  others  such  as  contractility  and  irritability.  But  by 
chemical  analysis  a  piece  of  human  tissue  can  be  reduced  to 
its  original  elements,  and  it  will  be  seen  that  they  have  not 
diminished  in  quantity,  and  have  not  lost  any  of  their  prop- 
erties from  the  combination.  At  eacli  combination  of  the 
simple  elements,  new  properties  are  displayed,  until  by  com- 
bination and  recombination,  finally  living  tissue  is  produced. 
On  the  other  hand  the  radiant  energies  constituting  the  condi- 
tions of  matter  are  all  convertible,  and  there  seems  a  possibil- 
ity of  reducing  all  radiant  energies  to  one  form.  For  example, 
heat,  light,  mechanical  energy  and  electricity  are  all  con- 
vertible. The  heat  of  the  sun  stored  in  coal  is  transformed 
into  mechanical  energy  through  steam,  and  the  mechanical 
energy  in  the  dynamo  is  changed  into  electricity,  and  the 
-electricity  in  the  trolley  car  is  again  transformed  into 
mechanical  energy,  used  in  locomotion,  and  dissipated  in 
friction  as  heat. 

It  has  been  the  dream  of  chemists  to  reduce  all  matter  to 
one  ultimate  form,  but  heretofore  it  has  always  been  a 
failure,  and  there  does  not  seem  to  be  any  real  reason  to 


10        THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF   HUMANITY 

believe  it  will  ever  be  accomplished.  Matter  is  the  static 
form  of  energy;  energy  is  the  dynamic  form  of  matter.  The 
energy  of  matter  is  gravitant,  rotary ;  radiant  energy,  light, 
heat  and  electricity  is  linear.  All  the  visible  forms  of  mat- 
ter— the  stars,  the  sun,  its  planets  and  satellites — have  a 
rotary  motion.  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  the  atoms  of 
matter  in  compounds  are  rotating,  and  are  held  in  their 
respective  places  by  some  such  process  as  are  the  heavenly 
bodies  in  space.  All  explosive  compounds  show  with  what 
force  the  substances  of  the  compounds  are  held  together. 
And  in  animals  the  energy  of  the  organism  is  at  least  in  part 
gotten  from  chemism.  Gravitant  and  radiant  energy  are 
closely  related  for  the  chemical  action  of  acids  on  metals  is 
one  of  the  sources  of  electricity,  and  animal  energy  may  be 
due  in  part  to  electricity. 

Light,  heat,  and  all  of  the  physical  energies  are  profound 
mysteries.  All  radiant  energy  must  be  linear  or  else  it 
could  not  extend  across  the  solar  system.  What  it  is,  in 
terms  of  something  else,  is  unknown ;  it  is  only  known  by 
its  effects  upon  us. 

The  various  phenomena  of  nature,  stellar,  solar,  terres- 
trial, inorganic,  organic  and  social  are  caused  by  the  inter- 
action of  these  two  forms  of  energy.  The  primary  qualities 
of  matter,  gravity,  cohesion,  metabolism,  association,  are  due 
to  rotary,  gravitant  energies;  the  secondary  qualities  of 
matter,  color,  heat,  and  electrification,  are  due  to  radiant 
energy.  All  compounds  of  matter — chemical  compounds, 
organic  compounds  and  the  association  of  human  beings  are 
produced  by  the  original  atomic  motions  of  chemical  com- 
pounds, and  all  the  complicated  forms  of  energy,  feeling, 
thought,  emotion,  knowledge,  are  a  product  of  the  physical 
energies  of  nature,  light,  sound,  mechanical  energy,  and  so 
forth,  as  stored  in  the  human  organism  and  language  and 
institutions  after  countless  ages  of  experience  with  the  ener- 
gies of  nature  and  the  energies  of  society. 


A  NATUKALISTIC  CONCEPT  OF  THINGS      11 

V. 

Before  the  evolution  of  life  and  mind,  all  the  phenom- 
ena of  nature  were  subject  to  the  three  laws  of  motion, 
and  resulted  in  the  first  form  of  order  in  nature.  It  is 
through  these  three  laws  of  motion,  three  ways  for  the  dissi- 
pation of  energy,  that  we  understand  the  various  combina- 
tions of  atoms  and  molecules,  and  organizations  in  physical, 
inorganic  nature.  The  three  laws  of  motion  are  as  follows : 

1.  Every  body  continues  in  its  state  of  rest  or  uniform 
motion  in  a  straight  line,  except  in  so  far  as  it  may  be  com- 
pelled by  impressed  force  to  change  that  state. 

2.  Change  of  motion  is  proportional  to  the  force  applied, 
and  takes  place  in  the  direction  of  the  straight  line  in  which 
the  force  acts. 

3.  To  every  action  there  is  always  an  equal  action  in  an 
opposite  direction. 

This  is  the  statement  of  the  three  laws'of  motion  as  worked 
out  by  Sir  Isaac  Newton.  They  may  be  summarized  in  the 
one  law  that  energy  in  physical  inorganic  nature  always 
takes  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  as  determined  by  the 
contending  energies.  Keally  there  are  but  four  laws  for  the 
dissipation  of  energy  in  the  universe,  the  first  being  that  all 
energy  in  physical,  inorganic  nature  takes  the  line  of  the 
least  resistance  as  determined  by  the  contending  energies; 
but  in  deference  to  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  I  have  let  his  classi- 
fication stand,  and  have  numbered  the  laws  that  I  have 
formulated  as  the  fourth,  fifth  and  sixth  laws  of  the  dissi- 
pation of  energy;  the  fourth  law  being  the  dissipation  of 
energy  by  the  intellect,  the  fifth  being  dissipation  of  energy 
by  the  moral  sense,  the  sixth  law  being  dissipation  of  energy 
by  the  social  sense,  to  be  discussed  and  elaborated  fully  in 
the  sequel. 

It  is  impossible  for  us  to  know  that  atoms  and  molecules 
expend  their  energies  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance, 
as  determined  by  the  contending  energies ;  but  it  is  perfectly 


12        THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF   HUMANITY 

reasonable  to  suppose  they  do,  for  nature  is  one  continuous 
whole.  It  will  be  observed  that  according  to  Newton's  three 
laws  of  motion  all  of  the  energy  acting  to  produce  any  given 
phenomenon  is  used  up  at  one  fell  stroke.  If  two  moving, 
inanimate  bodies  in  nature  oppose  each  other,  all  of  their 
energy  is  neutralized  in  opposition.  Seldom  in  nature  does 
any  action  or  interaction  of  moving  inanimate  bodies  end  in 
anything  but  waste  of  energy.  There  is  not  much  coopera- 
tion among  men,  less  among  animals,  practically  none  what- 
ever in  physical,  inorganic  nature.  Nature  is  the  most 
extravagant  organization  imaginable,  the  most  wasteful. 
Inorganic  nature,  from  the  origination  of  the  solar  system  to 
the  action  and  reaction  of  the  elements  and  energies  on  the 
earth,  does  not  display  any  principle  but  blind,  wasteful 
dissipation  of  energy  according  to  the  three  laws  of  motion. 
This  does  not  mean  that  the  energies  are  destroyed,  but  that 
they  accomplish  no  definite  work.  They  are  dissipated  in 
neutralization  and  opposition  and  accomplish  nothing.  They 
are  wasted  in  the  sense  that,  being  capable  of  doing  useful 
work,  they  accomplish  nothing  but  useless  dissipation. 

It  is  true  that  the  wasteful  expenditure  of  the  energies  in 
nature,  in  the  action  and  reaction  of  bodies  upon  one 
another,  result  in  conditions  favorable  to  life  and  mind  here 
on  earth;  and  for  that  matter,  no  doubt,  throughout  the 
whole  universe ;  because  the  creation  of  intelligent  beings  is 
as  much  within  the  province  of  the  cycle  of  every  solar 
system  in  the  universe  as  the  origination  of  all  of  its  other 
forms.  Man  is  as  natural  a  form  of  matter  under  given 
conditions  as  a  chemical  compound,  and,  given  the  elements 
and  the  conditions,  both  inevitably  result.  Things,  in 
the  course  of  the  universal  process  throughout  the  universe, 
have  adjusted  themselves,  or  will  adjust  themselves  blindly, 
not  only  on  our  planet,  but  on  all  others,  at  some  time  or 
other,  so  that  throughout  the  universe  there  is  a  blind  sup- 
plementing of  the  various  kinds  of  dissipations  of  energy, 


A  NATUEALISTIC  CONCEPT  OF  THINGS      13 

which  result  in  coincident  favorable  conditions,  giving  rise 
to  a  semblance  of  intelligent  adaptation.  For  example,  the 
conditions  of  our  earth  in  regard  to  its  suitability  for  plant, 
animal  and  social  existence. 

But  what  does  the  apparently  intelligent  arrangement 
amount  to  when  we  estimate  all  of  the  waste?  Think  of  the 
energies  that  could  be  expended  more  economically  than  they 
are, -if  any  being,  even  with  man's  intellect,  had  the  power 
to  use  them!  Take,  for  example,  the  ill-arrangement  of  the 
rainfall  upon  the  earth.  Think  of  the  great  amount  of  rain 
that  goes  back  into  the  ocean,  never  having  touched  the 
parched  and  arid  plains  needing  it  so  much;  of  that  which 
falls  on  the  bleak  rocks  and  inaccessible  wastes,  yet  there  is 
an  infinitesimal  amount  of  rain  that  falls  on  suitable  places 
and  at  suitable  times,  which,  with  the  cooperation  of  sun- 
light, enables  plants  and  animals  to  live.  Think,  too,  of  the 
enormous  waste  of  sunlight,  yet  some  of  it,  only  a  small  per 
cent,  the  rest  being  lost  in  space,  makes  the  earth  habitable. 
So  inorganic  nature  is  controlled  by  blind  mechanical  laws, 
and,  if  benefits  result,  it  is  purely  fortuitous.  Things  are  as 
they  are  because  both  matter  and  energy  are  indestructible, 
and  no  matter  the  arrangement,  the  result  enables  matter  to 
complete  its  cycle  of  development,  from  chemical  compound 
to  human  society,  as  will  some  day  be  definitely  proved  by 
showing  the  habitability  of  all  of  the  planets,  or  their  ulti- 
mate habitability  in  the  course  of  time.  Life  and  mind  are 
developed  in  spite  of  nature  not  with  its  assistance.  It  is 
the  nature  of  matter  and  energy  to  develop  life  and  mind 
and  human  society  as  it  is  for  them  to  manifest  themselves 
in  any  other  way.  Every  thing  we  see  is  natural. 

The  dissipation  of  all  energy  before  the  origin  of  life  and 
mind  was  aimless.  It  is  so  now  in  the  realms  of  nature 
uncontrolled  by  animal  life  or  man.  The  possibilities  of 
matter  and  energy  are  wonderful,  but  owing  to  unintelligent 
arrangement  throughout  the  starry  systems,  the  solar  system 


14        THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

and  inorganic  nature  here  on  earth,  it  accomplishes  nothing 
but  aimless  actions,  now  and  then,  relieved  by  a  happy  coop- 
eration, due  to  the  fortuitous  interaction  of  blind  energies. 
If  man  had  the  power,  even  with  his  puny  mind,  he  could 
make  improvements  in  the  solar  system  that  would  direct  its 
wasting  energies  to  human  advantage,  and  he  could  make  out 
of  the  earth  a  veritable  paradise ;  but  with  his  limited  power 
to-day,  he  can  only  criticise,  not  amend. 

I  know  the  answer  to  all  this  is  that  we  do  not  fcnow  what 
ulterior  purpose  all  this  waste  of  energy  in  nature  may  serve. 
It  may  be  deemed  pious  to  sit  in  wonder  at  our  own 
ignorance,  but  it  is  not  scientific.  So  far  as  we  are  con- 
cerned, there  is  no  purpose,  if  we  cannot  discover  one.  We 
must  accept  things  as  they  are.  We  gain  nothing  by  being 
afraid  we  will  hurt  nature's  feelings  by  telling  the  truth 
about  it. 

If  the  elements  and  energies  of  nature  were  not  suscepti- 
ble of  any  ways  of  dissipating  energy  other  than  the  three 
laws  of  motion,  then  the  universal  process  would  have 
stopped  with  inorganic  compounds.  Happily  the  elements 
and  energies  of  nature  in  their  infinite  strivings  and  fortu- 
itous combinations  developed  new  possibilities.  The  elements 
and  energies  of  nature,  in  the  universal  process  we  see  going 
on  throughout  the  universe,  reached  the  high  degree  of  evo- 
lution of  purely  chemical  compounds  here  on  earth,  then  the 
action  and  interaction  of  the  physical  energies  of  nature  upon 
these  compounds  produced  an  entirely  new  world,  consisting 
of  life  and  its  possibilities,  resulting  in  a  new  law  of  the  dis- 
sipation of  energy,  and  a  new  form  of  order,  being  the  indi- 
vidual controlled  by  intellect.  And  the  world  of  living 
beings,  after  developing  man,  ends  in  another  world  of  still 
superior  kind,  with  still  higher  laws  of  the  dissipation  of 
energy,  and  still  a  higher  form  of  order,  consisting  of  human 
society  controlled  by  morality.  There  are  thus  three  great 
classes  of  phenomena  in  nature,  each  with  its  special  kind  of 


A  NATURALISTIC  CONCEPT  OF  THINGS      15 

laws  of  the  dissipation  of  energy ;  but  the  laws  of  the  first 
class  extend  to  the  second,  and  the  laws  of  the  second  to  the 
third,  being  nature,  the  individual  and  society.  Nature  is 
one  continuous  whole,  but  susceptible  of  many  combinations. 
The  units  of  the  first  world,  atoms,  controlled  by  the  three 
laws  of  motion  end  in  their  highest  possible  development, 
chemical  compounds.  Then  chemical  compounds  become  the 
units  of  the  second  world,  the  individual;  and  the  individual, 
controlled  by  the  laws  of  morality,  the  moral  and  social 
senses,  ends  in  the  highest  possible  organization  of  matter 
and  energy  on  earth,  society.  The  laws  of  mind  do  not 
supplant  the  laws  of  motion,  nor  the  laws  of  morality  sup- 
plant the  laws  of  mind,  but  in  each  case  only  supplement  one 
another. 

All  energy  in  nature  is  expended  along  the  line  of  the  least 
resistance  or  greatest  attraction.  This  is  the  most  funda- 
mental law  of  nature.  It  has  three  forms:  energy  as 
expended  in  physical  nature,  energy  as  expended  in  organic 
nature,  and  energy  as  expended  in  society.  The  first  form 
of  the  expenditure  of  energy  is  the  blind  battling  of  natural 
energies  in  which  all  energy  expends  itself  along  the  line  of 
the  least  resistance  or  the  greatest  attraction  as  determined 
by  the  contending  energies  in  opposition  and  neutralization. 
This  is  the  condition  of  matter  and  energy  in  the  stellar  and 
solar  systems.  It  is  the  condition  of  matter  and  energy 
here  on  earth  as  seen  in  inorganic  compounds.  In  this  first 
form  of  the  law  of  the  expenditure  of  energy  there  is  no 
economy  in  the  sense  of  saving.  The  universal  process  we 
see  going  on  out  in  the  depths  of  space  is  due  to  the  blind 
battling  of  natural  energies,  and  ends  in  a  fixed  order  of 
equilibrated  forces ;  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  inorganic 
compounds  here  on  earth. 

The  second  form  of  the  law  of  the  expenditure  of  energy 
is,  that  energy  is  expended  under  the  guidance  of  mind,  by 
mind  meaning  all  nervous  phenomena  as  is  seen  throughout 


16        THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

the  animal  kingdom,  and  ends  in  a  system  of  variable  order 
one  grade  higher  than  the  fixed  order  of  inorganic  nature. 
Under  the  first  law  of  the  expenditure  of  energy  all  the 
energy  of  the  interacting  bodies  is  used  up  to  the  particular 
advantage  of  none  of  the  interacting  bodies,  the  energies 
simply  neutralizing  one  another  iii  opposition,  expending 
themselves  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  or  the  great- 
est attraction.  But  under  the  second  form  of  the  law  of  the 
expenditure  of  energy,  the  interacting  bodies  not  only  use 
all  of  their  own  energies  but  also  the  energies  of  external 
nature  to  preserve,  perpetuate  and  perfect  their  existence. 
The  first  function  of  mind,  the  highest  manifestation  of  the 
second  form  of  the  law  of  the  expenditure  of  energy,  is  to 
direct  the  energy  of  the  organism  possessing  it ;  its  second 
function  is  to  direct  the  blind  energies  of  nature  so  that  the 
organism  may  the  better  adapt  itself  and  its  species  to  the 
environment.  Mind  is  the  reaction  of  the  environment 
upon  a  sensitive  form  of  matter  competent  to  receive  it. 
The  environment  acts  as  a  mold  to  fashion  life  to  fit  it.  Life 
and  mind  are  what  they  are  as  responses  to  the  environment. 
Life  and  mind  are  variables  that  change  as  the  environment 
changes.  This  is  seen  everywhere  in  nature,  and  nowhere 
more  fully  than  in  the  history  of  mankind.  The  possi- 
bilities of  human  life  are  great  because  under  this  second 
law  of  expending  energy,  directed  by  the  human  mind,  all 
of  the  energies  of  the  human  organism,  and  nearly  all  of  the 
energies  of  nature,  can  be  turned  to  individual  advantage, 
and  the  concept  of  economy,  in  the  sense  of  saving,  in  the 
sense  of  turning  energy  to  human  advantage,  is  seen  for  the 
first  time  throughout  nature.  All  energy  under  this  second 
form  of  the  law  of  the  expenditure  of  energy  is  for  the  first 
time  in  nature  expended  according  to  design,  purpose. 
Ultimately  the  individual  becomes  the  object  for  which  all 
nature  strives  and  labors,  and  the  energies  that  heretofore 
have  dissipated  themselves  blindly,  under  the  first  form  of 


A  NATURALISTIC  CONCEPT  OF  THINGS      17 

the  law,  are  used  in  their  expenditure  by  the  intelligent 
individual  to  his  own  advantage.  And  the  form  of  order 
resulting  is  distinct  from  the  order  resulting  from  the  first 
form  of  the  law,  the  blind  battling  of  natural  energies,  being 
a  moving  equilibrium  of  forces.  The  first  form  of  the  law 
of  the  expenditure  of  energy  results  in  a  fixed  order,  and  is 
accomplished  by  the  neutralization  of  all  the  energies  of  the 
interacting  bodies  in  opposition,  while  the  order  resulting 
from  the  second  form  of  the  law  of  the  expenditure  of 
energy  is  variable  and  is  due  to  the  interacting  energies  of 
the  various  bodies — human  beings  and  external  energies — 
directed  to  the  advantage  of  themselves,  none  of  it  being 
wasted  in  dissipation  or  neutralization.  When  two  inani- 
mate objects  come  within  each  other's  field  the  energy  of 
each  is  used  up  in  the  reaction  and  neither  is  in  the  least 
benefited.  Not  so  with  living  beings.  When  they  come 
within  each  other's  field  the  energy  of  each  is  used  to  keep 
itself  from  destruction  or  to  perpetuate  its  life,  and  if 
the  animals  are  friendly  their  energies  are  often  expended 
in  cooperation  and  none  of  it  is  lost.  In  addition  to 
this,  with  human  beings,  the  energies  of  nature  are  used 
to  human  advantage.  Under  the  first  form  of  the  law  of 
the  expenditure  of  energy  in  nature  all  of  the  energies  are 
wasted;  under  the  second  form  they  are  expended  to  the 
advantage  of  living  beings  and  end  in  the  development  of 
the  individual,  the  highest  product  of  what  mind  can  do  in 
nature. 

The  third  form  of  the  law  of  the  expenditure  of  energy  in 
nature  is  seen  in  human  association,  tribes,  nations  and  the 
race  and  results  in  the  highest  form  of  order  and  the  great- 
est economy  of  energy  seen  in  the  universe — human  energy 
expended  according  to  the  moral  and  social  senses.  The 
expenditure  of  energy  directed  by  mind  is  an  improvement 
upon  the  blind  battling  of  energies  in  nature  and  begins 
where  the  other  ends.  And  just  as  mind  directs  the  blindly 


18         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

expended  energies  of -nature  to  individual  advantage,  so  the 
social  expenditure  of  energy,  the  third  form  of  the  law  of 
the  expenditure  of  energy  in  nature,  through  the  moral  and 
social  senses  directs  the  intelligently  expended  energies  of 
individuals  to  social  advantage— the  highest  individual 
advantage.  Just  as  the  energies  of  nature  ended  in 
neutralization  and  exhaustion,  resulting  in  a  fixed  order,  so 
does  the  battling  of  the  energies  of  individuals  uncontrolled 
by  society  in  any  form,  the  tribe,  nation  or  race,  through 
neutralization  and  opposition  of  human  energy,  end  in  a 
dynamic  order.  And  just  as  the  individual  by  mind  has 
turned  almost  all  of  the  energies  of  nature  to  his  own 
advantage,  so  it  is  the  function  of  society,  through  the  third 
form  of  the  law  of  the  expenditure  of  energy  in  nature,  to 
turn  to  social  advantage,  the  highest  individual  advantage, 
all  the  energies  of  the  individuals  constituting  society. 
Further  than  this,  just  as  the  blind  battling  of  natural  ener- 
gies developed  mind  by  reaction  for  their  controlment,  so 
the  expenditure  of  individual  energies  in  society  has  devel- 
oped in  the  tribe,  the  nation,  and  will  ultimately  develop  in 
the  whole  race,  moral  and  social  senses  for  the  perfect  con- 
trolment of  the  individual.  All  energy  in  nature  expends 
itself  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  or  the  greatest 
attraction  under  three  forms  of  determination :  might,  mind 
and  morality.  The  first  law  of  the  expenditure  of  energy  is 
the  expenditure  of  energy  according  to  the  three  New- 
tonian laws  of  motion,  the  second  is  the  expenditure  of 
energy  according  to  the  fourth  law  of  motion  as  worked 
out  in  this  investigation,  the  expenditure  of  energy  accord- 
ing to  intellect,  and  the  third  law  of  the  expenditure 
of  energy  is  according  to  the  fifth  and  sixth  law  of 
motion,  energy  expended  according  to  the  moral  and  social 
senses. 

Thus  we  have  three  distinct  phases  of  existence  in  nature. 
First,  the  physical  controlled  by  the  dissipation  of  energy 


A  NATURALISTIC  CONCEPT  OF  THINGS      19 

according  to  the  three  laws  of  motion,  energy  taking  the  line 
of  the  least  resistance,  determined  by  the  contending  energies, 
resulting  in  an  order  that  is  produced  through  maximum 
waste;  secondly,  the  mental,  controlled  by  the  dissipation  of 
energy  according  to  the  laws  of  mind,  energy  taking  the  line 
of  the  least  resistance  determined  by  the  intellect,  resulting 
in  an  order  that  ends  in  relative  waste;  thirdly,  the  social, 
controlled  by  the  dissipation  of  energy  according  to  the  laws 
of  morality,  energy  taking  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  as 
determined  by  the  moral  and  social  senses,  resulting  in  an 
order  that  produces  perfect  economy  in  the  energies  of  nature 
and  the  energies  of  society.  In  each  system  of  organization 
there  is  an  increasing  economy  of  energy,  and  a  new  set  of 
laws,  producing  a  new  form  of  order,  higher  than  that  which 
went  before  it.  In  physical,  inorganic  nature  the  waste  of 
energy  is  at  its  maximum.  The  dissipation  of  energy  is 
purely  blind,  aimless.  In  the  organic  world  energy  is  made 
to  follow  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  according  to  mind. 
What  energy  is  saved  is  saved  for  purely  selfish  purposes.  In 
society  in  its  ultimate  form,  energy  is  dissipated  with  perfect 
economy,  made  to  follow  the  line  of  the  least  resistance 
according  to  intelligence  and  morality,  and  the  energy  saved 
is  saved  for  the  whole  of  society,  altruistic  purposes. 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  give  a  full  detailed  account  of 
nature  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  three  mechanical  laws 
of  motion,  the  dissipation  of  energy  along  the  line  of  the 
least  resistance  as  determined  by  the  contending  energies,  for 
when  the  reader  gets  the  general  conception  of  the  triplicate 
formations  of  the  systems  of  order  in  nature,  with  their 
different  laws  of  expending  energy,  he  will  not  need  it ;  but 
it  is  my  intention  to  give  a  somewhat  detailed  account  of 
nature  from  the  point  of  view  of  life  and  mind;  and  it  is  my 
special  intention  to  discuss  fully  so  far  as  I  am  able  the 
expenditure  of  energy  in  society  according  to' the  laws  of 
morality. 


20        THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

But  I  will  first  address  myself  to  the  discussion  of  the 
fundamental  laws  controlling  the  origination  of  the  various 
compounds  in  nature,  chemical  compounds,  plants  and  ani- 
mals and  human  society,  being  the  laws  of  repetition. 

Before  going  any  farther,  in  order  that  the  reader  may 
fully  understand  this  investigation,  it  will  be  necessary  for 
him  to  have  some  knowledge  of  the  law  of  natural  selection, 
so  an  attempted  definition  may  not  be  amiss.  In  the  theory 
of  evolution,  the  selective  operation  of  external  conditions 
on  chemical  compounds,  plants,  animals  and  social  forms 
whereby  variations  that  are  advantageous  in  a  certain  envi- 
ronment in  the  struggle  for  existence  become  perpetuated  in 
nature,  the  species  or  the  race  is  natural  selection.  It  is  the 
survival  of  certain  favored  forms,  organs,  organisms  or  insti- 
tutions in  the  struggle  for  existence  in  nature  and  society. 
All  forms,  inorganic,  organic  and  social,  are  constantly 
varying;  the  environment  through  the  struggle  for  existence 
selects  those  fittest  to  exist.  This  process  is  called  the  law 
of  natural  selection.  See  Darwin's  Origin  of  Species,  Chaps. 
III.  and  IV. ;  Descent  of  Man,  pp.  47  to  64  inclusive;  Prof. 
E.  D.  Cope's  Origin  of  the  Fittest,  p.  14,  et  seq. ;  Spencer's 
Biology,  Vol.  I.,  Part  "ill,  Chaps.  II.  and  XII. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   LAW   OF   REPETITION 


The  most  universal  phenomenon  in  nature  is  change. 
Everything  is  in  a  constant  flux,  a  continuing  process. 
Whether  it  be  a  nebulous  mass  forming  a  solar  system  in  the 
depths  of  space  or  the  crystallization  of  a  salt  in  the  retort 
in  our  hands,  we  note  the  same  common  fact  of  progressive 
change.  Out  of  this  seeming  chaos,  upon  investigation, 
comes  the  truth  that  no  matter  what  it  is  that  changes  its 
process  is  but  a  repetition  of  similar  processes  throughout 
the  universe,  and  different  only  because  under  different  con- 
ditions. 

The  gravitant  energies  constituting  matter  the  universe 
over  simply  repeat  the  forms  in  which  they  act,  and  would 
go  on  repeating  them  forever  without  change  but  for  external 
radiant  energy,  the  physical  energies  of  nature,  making 
modifications  in  them.  And  the  radiant  energies  in  nature 
in  their  translatory  motions  in  nature  simply  repeat  themselves 
in  whatever  object  they  come  in  contact  with.  The  action 
of  gravitant  energy  constituting  bodies  is  internal  repetition. 
The  action  of  radiant  energies  in  repeating  themselves  in 
bodies  is  external  repetition.  Throughout  space  we  find 
nebulous  masses  at  various  stages  of  development  in  the  pro- 
duction of  solar  systems.  One  system  is  a  repetition  of 
another  except  for  slightly  different  external  conditions  due 
primarily  to  difference  in  size  and  to  external  physical  condi- 
tions. In  the  solar  system  each  planet  produced  by  tho  sun 
is  a  repetition  of  the  sun  on  a  smaller  scale  except  for 

21 


22        THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

slightly  different  conditions  due  primarily  to  difference  in 
size  and  to  external  physical  energies.  In  the  moons  thrown 
off  from  the  planets,  we  find  a  repetition  of  the  planets  on  a 
smaller  scale,  due  primarily  to  difference  in  size  and  to  differ- 
ent external  conditions.  The  phenomena  of  nature  accord- 
ing to  internal  energies  would  be  an  exact  reproduction  of 
each  other  except  for  external  physical  energies  which  vary 
the  repetition  by  modifying  the  conditions  of  the  repeating 
bodies.  Matter  the  universe  over  is  passing  through  a  cycle, 
a  universal  process,  and  these  various  cycles  are  exact  repro- 
ductions of  one  another  except  for  the  size  of  the  masses 
undergoing  the  change  and  the  different  external  physical 
energies. 

No  doubt  solar  systems  begin,  go  through  definite  evolu- 
tions, and  end,  just  as  everything  about  us  begins,  goes 
through  definite  evolutions  and  ends,  ourselves  not  excepted; 
and  solar  systems  no  doubt  repeat  over  and  over  again  their 
phenomena,  although  it  may  take  billions  of  years,  just  as 
the  gravitant  and  radiant  energies  here  on  earth  repeat  over 
and  over  again  their  phenomena,  some  in  a  day,  a  year  or  a 
century.  If  man  could  live  on  the  earth  for  several  hundred 
million  years  the  great  cycles  of  the  solar  systems  could  be 
observed;  as  it  is,  such  knowledge  is  only  possible  to  the 
race  as  a  whole.  But  what  man  lacks  in  direct  power  of 
observation,  he  makes  up  in  reason  and  inference,  and  all  of 
the  phenomena  of  the  universe  will  some  day  be  read  as  a 
book  from  the  key  of  his  knowledge  of  the  immediate 
environment  surrounding  him. 

On  earth  it  will  be  found  that  all  of  the  different  elements 
repeat  themselves  in  identical  forms  with  identical  proper- 
ties, and  are  only  varied  slightly  under  different  external 
energies,  the  elements  taking  different  forms  as  gases, 
liquids,  solids  and  crystals,  depending  upon  external  ener- 
gies. The  same  is  true  of  all  chemical  compounds.  They 
always  repeat  themselves  in  identical  forms  and  are  varied 


THE   LAW   OF   REPETITION  23 

only  under  different  conditions.  The  two  manifestations  of 
energy  in  chemical  compounds  are  chemism  and  external 
physical  energies.  Nature  everywhere  is  passing  through  a 
cycle  from  the  vast  solar  system  to  our  own  lives — one  anal- 
ogous of  the  other. 

The  difference  between  organic  compounds  and  inorganic 
compounds  is  not  so  profound  as  heretofore  believed.  Man's 
theory  of  things  has  dominated  his  perception  of  the  facts. 
Starting  out  with  the  belief  in  an  impassible  chasm  between 
the  organic  and  the  inorganic,  man  has  not  been  troubled  in 
finding  facts  to  justify  his  belief.  But  nature  looked  at  from 
the  naturalistic  point  of  view  demonstrates  its  perfect  con- 
tinuity. For  every  characteristic  of  the  organic,  there  is  a 
corresponding  characteristic  of  the  inorganic,  no  matter  the 
intricacy  of  the  phenomenon,  reproduction,  life,  mind  and 
social  aggregation.  Take,  for  example,  the  phenomenon  of 
reproduction.  The  great  difference  between  organic  and 
inorganic  reproduction  is  that  inorganic  reproduction  is 
always  by  abiogenesis,  spontaneous  generation,  and  takes 
place  whenever  the  constituents  of  an  inorganic  substance 
are  present  under  the  proper  conditions.  It  would  be  really 
more  descriptive  of  the  phenomenon,  however,  to  say  that 
elements  and  inorganic  compounds  produce  themselves 
instead  of  reproduce  themselves ;  yet  even  in  inorganic  com- 
pounds we  see  the  incipient  form  of  that  reproduction  which 
in  organic  compounds  is  called  sexual  reproduction.  A 
crystal  of  a  substance  placed  in  a  mother  lye  will  instantly 
produce  crystalization,  which,  without  it,  might  have  been 
delayed  for  hours.  Reproduction  in  chemical  compounds  is 
more  similar  to  reproduction  in  tribes  and  nations  than  in 
plants  and  animals.  Among  societies,  the  parent  nation 
throws  off  colonies  that  are  a  repetition  of  the  mother  state 
only  varied  under  different  conditions,  the  different  condi- 
tions being  different  ideas  often  suggested  by  new  physical 
conditions. 


24        THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF   HUMANITY 

II 

In  organic  compounds  is  the  first  place  in  the  evolution 
of  the  solar  system  that  we  see  repetition  in  a  perfect  form, 
and  there  the  offspring  is  an  exact  repetition  of  the  parent 
except  for  the  variations  due  to  external  energies.  It  makes 
no  difference  whether  the  organic  product  be  a  plant  or  an 
animal,  it  is  always  the  same.  The  possible  variations  due 
to  external  conditions  are  much  greater  in  organic  compounds 
than  in  physical,  inorganic  compounds,  but  the  law  of 
external  repetition  holds  sway  just  the  same  in  both  worlds. 
The  internal  energy  in  plants  and  animals  acts  in  metab- 
olism, assimilation  and  decomposition,  and  ends  in  heredity. 
The  external  energies  forming  the  conditions  of  existence  of 
plants  and  animals  are  the  physical  energies  of  nature,  and 
their  effect  upon  plants  and  animals  ends  in  variation. 
Repetition  in  the  inorganic  world  is  the  origination  of  any 
element  or  chemical  compound,  it  taking  a  definite  form  as 
a  gas,  a  liquid,  a  solid,  a  crystal,  determined  by  external 
physical  energies. 

The  law  of  internal  repetition,  whether  the  repetition  be  a 
chemical  compound,  a  plant,  an  animal  or  a  nation,  repeats 
the  form  of  the  body  in  which  it  acts  as  nearly  as  possible, 
and  would  repeat  it  perfectly  if  a  perfect  adjustment  of 
radiant  and  gravitant  energies  of  nature  could  be  effected; 
if  the  relation  existing  between  external  and  internal 
energies  were  constant  and  invariable.  Only  for  external 
energies,  there  could  be  no  variation  in  the  repetition  of 
bodies,  let  them  be  chemical  compounds,  plants,  animals  or 
nations;  and  only  for  internal  energies,  there  could  be  no 
permanency  of  form,  no  heredity  in  chemical  compounds, 
plants,  animals  and  nations.  The  internal  energies  in  tribes 
and  nations,  consisting  of  feelings  and  emotions,  the  primal 
emotion  being  religion,  end  in  order,  permanency  of  form; 
and  the  external  energies,  consisting  of  ideas,  knowledge 
end  in  variation  of  form,  progress. 


THE   LAW   OF   REPETITION  25 

The  law  of  internal  repetition  is  best  seen  in  organic  com- 
pounds. There  generation  after  generation  the  individual  is 
repeated  almost  without  variation.  The  law  of  internal 
repetition  is  that  the  internal  energies  repeat  the  body  in 
which  they  act,  subject  only  to  the  changes  introduced  by 
external  energies,  let  the  body  be  a  chemical  compound,  a 
plant,  an  animal  or  a  nation.  But  the  action  of  the  internal 
energies  do  not  compass  the  whole  of  any  phenomenon, 
because  surrounding  any  and  every  object  are  external 
physical  energies  that  form  its  conditions,  and  upon  which  its 
existence  depends.  If  we  begin  with  the  primal  chaos  of 
the  solar  system,  it  is  effected  by  the  radiant  energies  of  the 
surrounding  universe,  repeating  themselves  in  it  by  the  law 
of  external  repetition,  bringing  it  to  their  condition.  As 
the  solar  system  begins  to  form,  the  external  energies  repeat 
themselves  in  the  planets,  bringing  them  to  a  condition 
similar  to  themselves.  On  the  face  of  the  earth,  we  see  how 
rapidly  the  external  energies,  heat,  for  example,  permeates 
every  substance,  by  the  law  of  external  repetition,  reduc- 
ing it  to  its  temperature  by  repeating  in  the  substance 
its  own  vibrations.  Among  plants  and  animals  the  external 
energies  repeat  themselves  in  the  organisms,  and  in  this 
way  adapt  the  organisms  to  the  environment.  It  is  by 
the  law  of  external  repetition  that  mind  is  developed, 
and  by  the  same  law  that  society  has  been  evolved.  The 
law  of  repetition  establishes  beyond  doubt  the  continuity  of 
nature. 

Nature  works  by  simple  means  but  takes  infinite  time  in 
which  to  perform  its  functions.  The  law  of  external  repeti- 
tion is  a  very  simple  thing,  so  simple  as  seen  in  the  inorganic 
world,  that  it  does  not  look  to  be  the  efficient  cause  of  the 
wonderful  adaptability  of  plants,  animals  and  nations  to  their 
environment,  which  we  see  in  nature  and  civilization  to-day, 
but  such  we  will  find  to  be  the  case  upon  investigation. 
And  the  law  of  internal  repetition,  equally  simple,  none  the 


2G        THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

less  will  be  deemed  a  mystery,  when  we  trace  it  through 
chemical  compounds,  plants,  animals  and  nations. 

The  spectrum  analysis  shows  that  all  identical  substances, 
not  only  here  on  earth,  but  in  the  heavenly  bodies  through- 
out the  visible  universe,  are  identical  in  composition.  The 
law  of  definite  proportions  in  chemistry  shows  that  all  iden- 
tical chemical  compounds  are  the  same  in  composition. 
Whenever  a  substance  is  produced,  it  is  but  a  repetition  of 
all  other  substances  of  like  kind.  Wherever  a  chemical 
compound  is  reproduced,  it  is  a  repetition  of  all  identical 
compounds,  but  owing  to  external  energies  being  different 
there  are  some  slight  variations.  In  plants  the  variations 
are  still  greater,  in  animals  still  greater  than  in  plants, 
and  the  widest  variation  in  the  repetition  of  compounds  is 
met  with  among  nations,  a  variation  in  which  the  change 
introduced  by  external  energies  in  the  form  of  new  ideas 
is  so  great  that  after  a  few  centuries  the  parent  nation  can 
scarcely  be  seen  at  all  in  the  child-colony. 

Ill 

The  law  of  repetition  is  thus  seen  throughout  all  nature, 
beginning  with  the  least  developed  of  all  organizations,  the 
universe,  and  ending  with  the  most  highly  developed  organ- 
ism, society. 

The  following  is  an  example  of  the  law  of  internal  repeti- 
tion among  animals,  from  the  works  of  Prof.  John  Tyndall : 

"Yonder  butterfly  has  a  spot  of  orange  on  its  wing;  and  if 
we  look  at  a  drawing  made  a  century  ago  of  one  of  its 
ancestors,  we  probably  find  the  self-same  spot  upon  its  wing. 
For  a  century  the  molecules  have  described  their  cycles. 
Butterflies  have  been  begotten,  have  been  born,  have  died; 
still  we  find  the  molecular  architecture  unchanged.  Who  or 
what  determined  this  persistency  of  this  recurrence?  We  do 
not  know;  but  we  stand  within  our  intellectual  range  when 
we  say  that  there  is  probably  nothing  in  that  wing  which 


THE   LAW   OF   REPETITION  27 

may  not  yet  find  its  Newton  to  prove  that  the  principles 
involved  in  its  construction  are  qualitatively  the  same  as 
those  brought  into  play  in  the  formation  of  the  solar 
system." — Fragments  of  Science. 

The  following  is  an  example  of  the  law  of  external  repeti- 
tion among  animals  from  the  works  of  Prof.  E.  D.  Cope : 

"By  the  discovery  of  the  paleontologic  successions  of 
modifications  of  the  articulations  of  the  vertebrate,  and 
especially  the  mammalian  skeleton,  I  first  furnished  an 
actual  demonstration  of  the  reality  of  the  Lamarckian  factor 
of  use,  or  motion,  as  friction,  impact  and  strain  as  an 
efficient  cause  of  evolution." — Primary  Factors  of  Evolution 
pp.  10,  11. 

The  following  is  an  example  of  the  law  of  internal  repe- 
tition as  applied  to  social  organizations  from  Prof.  J.  Luys: 

"The  history  of  ancient  literature  shows  us  that  in  the 
same  situations  human  beings  have  always  felt  and  acted  in 
an  identical  manner.  In  every  page  of  their  tragic  or  comic 
works,  we  find  that  common  fund  of  immortal  truth  and 
judicious  reflection,  which  will  be  eternally  current  and 
applicable  at  every  epoch.  Similarly,  if  we  consider  human- 
ity throughout  space,  we  find  that  the  civilized  nations  of 
the  extreme  East,  the  Chinese  and  Japanese,  have  of  them- 
selves in  their  own  social  evolution  automatically  invented 
the  same  processes  of  government  and  administration 
which  have  been  for  centuries  contemporaneous  in  our  old 
Europe. 

"Human  brains,  therefore,  everywhere  and  always  react 
in  a  common  and  identical  manner  in  the  presence  of  the 
external  excitation.  We  thus  arrive  at  the  opinion  that 
there  is  in  humanity  a  sort  of  general  arrangement  of  ideas 
and  sentiments,  by  virtue  of  which  all  men  automatically  take 
the  same  direction  in  the  same  definite  circumstances  and 
judge  of  surrounding  things  in  an  identical  manner.  It  is 
the  natural  aptitude  that  we  all  possess  of  vibrating  in  unison 


28        THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

with  others  in  the  presence  of  an  external  situation,  for 
refracting  external  impressions  in  a  fashion  identical  with 
that  of  our  fellows,  that  causes  us  to  have  within  us  that 
notion  of  right  according  to  which  our  judgments  and  actions 
should  be  unconsciously  directed.  There  is  then  a  common 
right  line,  a  regular  highroad  which  is,  in  a  measure,  the 
common  meridian  line  along  which  the  emotions,  judgments 
and  actions  of  human  beings  are  directed;  and  it  is  this 
inner  notion  that  we  carry  with  us,  which  constitutes  the 
rule  of  good  sense  and  common  sense. 

"The  complete  man  regularly  constituted,  should,  then,  in 
the  presence  of  fixed  determinate  emotional  situations,  react  in 
an  appropriate  manner,  make  the  same  reflections,  experience 
the  same  attractions,  and  the  same  repulsions  that  his 
fellows  experience.  This  is  the  happy  point  of  contact  which 
unites  all  humanity  in  the  same  joys  and  the  same  sorrows, 
associates  it,  under  whatever  latitude  and  whatever  epoch  we 
consider  it  in  the  same  enthusiasms,  the  same  sympathies, 
and  the  same  aversions." — TJie  Brain  and  its  Functions, 
pp.  185,  186. 

The  law  of  repetition  has  been  recognized  by  various 
authors,  most  prominently  by  M.  Tarde  of  France,  under 
the  laws  of  imitation ;  and  also  by  Prof.  J.  Mark  Baldwin  of 
the  United  States,  under  the  same  title.  It  is  perfectly 
natural  that  such  a  law  should  be  discovered  by  more  than 
one  mind,  for  such  is  the  history  of  the  discovery  of  all  of 
the  many  ways  of  expending  energy  in  nature.  It  is  an 
example  of  the  law  of  external  repetition  itself  being  the 
same  energies  in  society  repeating  themselves  in  similar 
minds,  and  resulting  in  similar  discoveries.  But  the  law 
of  repetition  as  elaborated  in  this  book  was  originated  by  the 
author  in  1895  long  before  he  had  heard  of  Tarde's  or 
Baldwin's  work. 

The  similarity  of  the  flora  and  fauna  of  the  Old  World  and 
the  New  World  is  explained  by  the  law  of  repetition— 


THE   LAW   OF   KEPETITION  29 

external  conditions  being  similar,  climate  and  geography,  the 
environment,  the  forms  of  life  are  similar. 

IV 

Thus  we  see  that  the  law  controlling  the  combination 
and  organization  of  all  matter  from  the  solar  system  to  the 
social  organization,  and  the  law  controlling  the  registration 
and  the  expenditure  of  the  physical  energies  from  the  trans- 
mission of  the  physical  energies  of  inorganic  nature  to  the 
development  of  the  human  intellect  in  organic  nature,  and 
the  development  of  morality  in  society,  is  the  one  law  of 
repetition.  As  there  are  two  manifestations  of  energy, — 
gravitant  energy  producing  compounds  by  its  atomic 
motions;  and  radiant  energy  being  the  conditions  of  the 
compounds  and  determining  the  combinations  and  organiza- 
tions,— corresponding  with,  these  two  kinds  of  energy,  there 
are  two  forms  of  repetition :  internal  repetition  and  external 
repetition. 

Internal  repetition  is  the  repetition  of  the  energies  consti- 
tuting matter.  It  results  in  static  phenomena.  In  phys- 
ical, inorganic  compounds  it  is  chemism.  In  organic  com- 
pounds it  is  metabolism  and  results  in  the  phenomenon  of 
heredity.  In  society  it  is  conservatism  and  results  in  the 
phenomenon  of  order. 

External  repetition  in  physical,  inorganic  nature  is  the 
repetition  of  the  physical  energies,  light,  heat,  mechanical 
energy  and  so  forth.  It  results  in  dynamic  phenomena.  In 
organic  compounds  the  repetition  of  the  physical  energies  of 
nature  results  in  variation.  In  society  external  energies 
consisting  of  human  energies,  feelings  and  desires,  produce 
the  phenomenon  of  progress. 

Internal  repetition  in  general  results  in  static  phenomena, 
in  the  combinations  and  organizations  of  matter  seen  through- 
out the  universe ;  external  energy  in  general  results  in  dy- 
namic phenomena,  changes  in  matter  and  in  movement.  In 


30        THE  SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

internal  repetition  the  energies,  the  atomic  motions  and 
units,  repeat  the  forms  in  which  they  act,  subject  to  the 
changes  caused  in  them  by  the  external  energies,  let  the 
forms  be  chemical  compounds,  organic  compounds  or  social 
organizations.  In  external  repetition,  the  energies,  heat,  light, 
mechanical  energy  in  physical  inorganic  nature,  feeling  and 
will  in  society,  repeat  themselves  in  the  various  forms  of 
organic  matter  or  social  organizations,  thus  modifying  and 
adapting  them  to  their  various  environments,  let  them  be 
animals,  men  or  societies.  Only  for  internal  repetition, 
there  could  be  no  permanency  of  forms,  no  organizations  of 
matter;  and  only  for  external  repetition,  there  could  be  no 
variation  in  these  forms  to  correspond  to  the  changes  in  the 
environment.  These  two  laws  of  the  expenditure  of  gravi- 
tant  and  radiant  energies  in  nature  working  in  harmony, 
cause  all  the  evolution  we  see  in  inorganic  nature,  in  organic 
nature,  and  order  and  progress  in  society,  and  are  sufficient 
to  explain  the  causation  of  every  phenomenon. 

Further  illustrations  of  the  laws  of  repetition  are  not 
necessary  at  this  stage  of  our  investigation,  if  I  have  given 
the  reader  a  general  idea  of  the  law,  for  this  entire  work  is 
but  an  application  of  the  laws  of  repetition  to  the  phenom- 
ena of  nature,  life,  mind  and  society. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   ORIGIN    OF   LIFE 


The  solar  system  is  a  process  which  began  with  the 
least  possible  combination  of  matter,  and  the  maximum 
amount  of  external  energy;  and,  in  completing  its  cycle,  in 
adjusting  its  gravitant  energies  to  its  radiant  energies — really 
what  the  universal  process  consists  of — it  will  end  with  the 
greatest  possible  combination  of  matter,  and  the  minimum 
amount  of  external  energy.  After  reaching  the  highest 
organization  of  matter,  the  socialization  of  the  entire  human 
race,  owing  to  a  constantly  diminishing  amount  of  external 
energy,  it  will  ultimately  result  in  the  destruction  of  all  of  the 
organizations  of  matter  in  the  solar  system,  and  the  universal 
process  will  begin  again  from  the  ensuing  mist  of  atoms, 
passing  to  the  original  confines  of  the  primal  nebulous  mass, 
resulting  in  a  consequent  generation  of  external  energy. 
During  the  universal  process  occur  the  various  organizations 
of  matter  here  on  earth,  chemical  compounds,  plants, 
animals  and  humanity,  and  which  resist  the  ultimate  disor- 
ganization of  matter  by  resisting  the  dissipation  of  external 
energy  into  space.  The  earth  is  now  somewhere  at  an  inde- 
terminate stage  of  this  universal  process,  just  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  human  race's  conscious  existence,  which,  no 
doubt,  will  last  for  many  million  years  before  we  see  any 
indications  of  the  end. 

At  its  beginning,  the  physical  energies  of  the  earth  were 
so  intense  that  the  only  forms  of  matter  possible  were  gases, 
but  with  the  adjustment  of  radiant  and  gravitant  energies,  a 
new  combination  of  matter  took  place  and  liauids  were 

31 


32        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF   HUMANITY 

formed;  with  a  further  adjustment  of  radiant  and  gravitant 
energies,  solids  irate  generated,  and  from  solids  came  amor- 
phous, crystalline  and  cellular  compounds.  Just  as  when 
temperature  falls  below  freezing,  ice  forms,  so  when  the 
temperature  of  our  primordial  world  fell  below  a  certain 
point,  owing  to  the  adjustment  of  radiant  and  gravitant 
energies,  the  universal  process,  liquids  formed;  then  amor- 
phous, crystalline,  and  cellular  compounds  were  produced.* 

At  the  dawn  of  life  and  mind,  the  earth  was  vastly  differ- 
ent from  what  it  is  to-day.  Its  solid  crust  was  thinner;  its 
atmosphere  was  denser,  and  composed  of  many  gases  now 
locked  within  compounds.  Its  oceans  were  wider  and  richer 
in  all  the  organic  constituents.  The  physical  energies  of 
the  solar  system  were  more  intense  than  they  are  to-day. 
The  storm-tossed  ocean  and  the  wind-blown  land  com- 
mingled their  elements  and  energies  in  mechanical  and 
chemical  actions  now  unknown  to  our  quiet  earth.  As  a 
result,  the  ocean  was  the  retort  in  which  life  was  formed, 
and  the  land  became  the  laboratory  of  its  development. 
Butschili,  Hofmeister,  Qnincke  and  others  have  shown  how 
artificial  protoplasm  may  be  made  from  the  emulsions  of 
soaps  and  oils ;  and  in  some  such  way  the  original  protoplasm 
was  formed  by  the  mechanical  and  chemical  actions  of 
primitive  nature,  f 

Whether  the  production  of  protoplasm  is  still  going  on  or 

•••It  is  not  to  be  doubted  that  in  the  early  history  of  our  Earth  organisms 
most  have  been  produced  abiogenetically;  the  origin  of  living  things  must  of 
necessity  have  sprung  from  inorganic  matter."— WILLIAM  WUXDT.  Quoted  in 
BUCHXKR'S  Fore*  and  Hatter. 

t  -Biological  researches  in  the  last  few  years  have  added  vastly  to  our  knowl- 
edge of  protoplasm  and  its  properties  and  there  is  no  longer  any  question  that 
its  qualities  are  the  expression  of  the  various  movements,  chemical  and  physi- 
cal, and  belong  to  it  simply  as  a  chemical  substance  Chemists  have  syntheti- 
cally formed  out  of  the  various  elements  a  vast  number  of  substances  that 
were  not  long  ago  believed  to  be  formed  only  by  living  things,  and  there  is  but 
little  reason  to  doubt  that,  when  they  shall  be  able  to  form  the  substance  pro- 
toplasm, it  will  possess  all  the  properties  it  is  known  to  have,  including  what 
we  call  life,  and  one  is  not  to  be  surprised  at  its  announcement  any  day."— 
PBOF.  A.  E.  DOLBKAR.  Matter.  Ether  and  Motion,  pp.  28J-3 


THE   ORIGIN    OF   LIFE  33 

not,  we  are  incompetent  to  discover  with  our  imperfect 
senses.  It  may  be  possible  that  it  is,  for  the  combinations 
of  matter  that  take  place  in  the  recesses  of  the  ocean  are 
unknown  to  us,  and  the  chemical  combinations  and  the  bio- 
logical organizations  that  take  place  in  the  atmosphere  are 
beyond  our  powers  of  observation.  The  probabilities  are 
that  as  nature  always  expends  its  energies  along  the  lines  of 
least  resistance,  and  as  it  would  seem  to  be  more  economic 
for  nature  to  reproduce  organism  from  organism  than  out  of 
their  inorganic  constituents,  abiogenesis,  spontaneous  gener- 
ation, is  a  method  of  originating  life,  which  in  the  struggle 
for  existence  in  originating  life  among  compounds,  has 
ceased  to  take  place,  by  being  replaced  by  the  methods  of 
reproduction. 

II 

At  each  change  in  the  diminution  of  the  earth's  energy 
there  has  resulted  a  corresponding  change  in  the  forms  of 
matter  on  the  earth.  The  difference  between  a  chemical 
compound  and  a  living  compound  is  the  difference  external 
energies  have  upon  each  of  them,  the  difference  being  partly 
caused  by  the  external  energies  themselves.  There  does  not 
seem  to  be  anything  mysterious  happening  when  a  vibrating 
body  causes  another  in  its  field  to  vibrate ;  or  that  pressure, 
electricity  and  heat  are  communicated  from  one  body  to 
another ;  or  that  light  can  reflect  the  image  of  an  object ;  yet 
the  law  of  external  repetition  by  which  these  phenomena 
occur  is  the  same  law  by  which  life  and  mind  are  produced. 

Life,  defined  by  Herbert  Spencer  as  "Continuous  adjust- 
ment of  internal  relations  to  external  relations,"  fits  the 
phenomenon  when  it  is  highly  developed,  but  not  so  well  at 
its  commencement.  Primordial  external  energies,  light, 
pressure,  heat  and  so  forth,  repeating  themselves  in  the 
primordial  internal  energies,  chemism,  resulted  in  elements 
and  chemical  compounds  being  produced  here  on  earth. 
Then  followed  the  origination  of  higher  chemical  compounds 


34        THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

as  objects  for  external  energies  to  work  upon  in  their  inter- 
minable adjustment  and  readjustment,  which  constitutes 
the  cycle  of  the  solar  system,  the  universal  process,  from 
primal  mist  to  completely  opaque  bodies  at  absolute  zero, 
when  the  process  will  have  ended.  External  energies 
existed  and  acted  from  the  origin  of  the  solar  system  as  they 
do  to-day,  but  compounds  to  act  upon  here  upon  earth  did 
not  exist  until  some  compound  arose  out  of  the  primal  mist, 
through  the  action  of  external  energies  ,upon  the  internal 
energies  constituting  matter  itself,  which  could  perpetuate 
itself  by  taking  advantage  of  external  energies  being 
repeated  in  it,  causing  them  to  adapt  it  to  its  environment. 

Every  compound  in  nature  is  affected  by  the  condition  of 
every  other  compound — the  conditions  being  external  energies 
— but  is  most  powerfully  affected  by  those  in  close  proximity 
to  it.  Whenever,  in  the  history  of  the  world,  there  arose  a 
compound  which  could  perpetuate  its  existence  through  this 
common  property  of  matter — its  ability  to  be  affected  by  the 
conditions  of  surrounding  matter — that  compound  possessed 
the  incipient  form  of  what  we  call  life  and  mind.  Pressure, 
vibrations  of  light,  heat  and  electricity  and  sound  existed  and 
repeated  themselves  in  compounds  by  the  law  of  external  repe- 
tition, for  ages  before  any  compound  arose,  through  the  repe- 
tition of  internal  energies,  that  could  utilize  the  external  phys- 
ical energies  to  perpetuate  its  existence;  and  when  some  such 
primordial  compound  did  arise,  the  first  life  and  mind  began. 

Life  and  mind  are  phenomena  that  are  inseparable,  that 
are  present  in  all  nature  in  the  form  of  primordial  energies : 
gravitant  energies  constituting  matter ;  and  radiant  energies 
constituting  the  conditions  of  matter.  "When  the  earth 
reached  that  stage  in  its  evolution  at  which  it  was  possible  for 
the  inorganic  to  be  supplemented  by  the  origination  of  the 
organic,  compounds  formed  of  atoms,  not  being  able  to  per- 
petuate their  existence  by  being  influenced  by  the  conditions 
of  surrounding  compounds,  were  easily  destroyed;  while 


35 

compounds  that  were  capable  of  being  affected  by  the  condi- 
tion of  surrounding  compounds  perpetuated  their  existence. 
This  is  the  first  manifestation  of  the  law  of  external  repeti- 
tion, and  consists  in  the  energies  of  nature,  light,  heat, 
mechanical  pressure,  electricity  and  so  forth,  repeating 
themselves  in  compounds,  and  thereby  adjusting  them  to 
nature.  At  this  stage  of  the  development  of  compounds 
upon  the  earth  one  of  two  things  must  have  occurred. 
Either  nature  was  compelled  to  take  advantage  of  this 
agency,  the  law  of  external  repetition,  to  supplement 
chemism,  the  law  of  internal  repetition,  or  evolution  must 
have  ceased  with  purely  chemical  combinations  as  we  see  in 
inorganic  nature  to-day.  Chemical  energies  following  the 
law  of  internal  repetition  can  develop  a  compound  so  high — 
if  other  agencies,  external  energies,  following  the  law  of 
external  repetition,  cannot  continue  the  development,  or 
assist  in  continuing  it,  it  must  stop.  It  was  at  this  stage  in 
the  evolution  of  the  forms  of  matter  on  the  earth  that  the 
law  of  external  repetition  was  utilized  to  supplement  the 
law  of  internal  repetition  in  developing  a  high  compound  of 
matter  subsequently  called  organic. 

After  the  earth  had  been  formed,  the  oceans  condensed 
and  separated  from  the  land,  with  the  continuous  adjust- 
ment of  radiant  energies  to  gravitant  energies,  the  universal 
process,  new  compounds  were  formed  by  purely  chemical 
actions,  each  becoming  more  and  more  delicate,  as  external 
energies  became  less  and  less  intense,  until  finally  a  com- 
pound was  produced  by  purely  chemical  means,  which  took 
advantage  of  the  impressions  that  external  energies  made 
upon  it,  to  perpetuate  its  existence.  This  was  the  first  form 
of  life.  Any  compound  benefited  by  its  being  affected  by 
the  conditions  of  surrounding  compounds,  having  external 
energies  repeated  in  it  by  the  law  of  external  repetition, 
according  to  the  law  of  natural  selection  would  survive ;  and 
by  the  law  of  internal  repetition  (heredity),  its  character- 


36        THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

istics  would  be  perpetuated  in  its  offspring,  let  them  be 
reproduced  in  any  manner  whatever.  That  such  a  com- 
pound in  the  infinite  trials  of  nature  was  produced  is  a 
matter  of  fact;  and  that  protoplasm  is  that  compound  is  the 
belief  of  the  scientific  world  to-day.* 

Protoplasm  differs  in  two  ways  from  chemical  compounds. 
First,  by  being  constituted  chemically  so  that  external  ener- 
gies, in  repeating  themselves  in  it,  can  liberate  some  of  its 
elements  without  destroying  the  compound  as  a  whole,  which 
it  would  do  if  it  were  inorganic,  resulting  in  chemical  decom- 
position, and  a  liberation  of  energy  within  the  compound, 
which  moves  it  as  a  whole  out  of  a  medium  unadapted  to  its 
existence,  or  into  a  medium  adapted  to  its  existence.  This  is 
the  source  of  all  animal  movement  from  the  amreba  to  man.f 

Secondly,  protoplasm  is  so  constituted  that  external  ener- 
gies in  repeating  themselves  in  it,  in  making  these  discharges 
of  internal  energy,  follow  the  line  of  the  least  resistance, 
and  develop  sense-organs,  and,  by  storing  themselves  in 


*  "For  the  purpose  of  biological  study  life  must  be  regarded  as  a  certain 
property  of  compound  matter.  But  we  are  forced  to  regard  the  properties  of 
compounds  as  the  resultant  of  their  constituent  elements,  even  though  we  can 
not  well  imagine  how  such  a  relation  exists;  as  in  the  long  run  we  have  to  fall 
back  upon  the  properties  of  carbon,  hydrogen,  oxygen  and  so  forth,  for  the 
properties  of  living  matter."— Introduction  to  General  Biology,  MESSRS.  W.  T. 
SBDGWICK  and  E.  B.  WILSON,  pp.  5,  6. 

t"We  may  now  briefly  consider  protoplasm  from  the  dynamical  or  physi- 
ological point  of  view.  We  know  that  living  things  are  the  seat  of  active 
changes,  which  taken  together  constitute  life.  *  *  *  Whence  comes  the 
power  of  protoplasmic  action?  The  answer  to  this  question  can  be  given  at 
this  point  only  in  very  general  terms.  It  is  certain  that  protoplasm  works  by 
means  of  chemical  action  taking  place  in  its  own  substance  and  it  is  further 
certain  that  these  actions  are,  broadly  speaking,  processes  of  oxidation  or  com- 
bustion; for  in  the  long  run  all  forms  of  protoplasmic  action  involve  the  taking 
up  of  oxygen  and  the  liberation  of  carbon  dioxide.  Energy  is  therefore  set 
free  in  living,  active  protoplasm  somewhat  as  it  is  in  the  combustion  of  fuel, 
like  the  coal  is  gradually  used  up,  disintegrates,  and  wastes  away,  giving  off  as 
waste  matter  the  various  chemical  products  of  combustion,  and  liberating 
energy  as  heat  and  mechanical  work.  The  loss  of  substance,  however,  is  con- 
tinually made  good  (much  as  coal  is  replenished)  by  the  absorption  of  new  sub- 
stance in  the  form  of  food,  which  may  consist  of  active  protoplasm,  derived 
from  other  living  bodies,  or  of  substances  convertible  into  it."— Ibid.,  pp. 
28,32,33. 


THE   ORIGIX   OF   LIFE  37 

the  organism,  by  the  law  of  external  repetition,  in  the  course 
of  countless  ages,  develop  the  human  body  and  the  human 
mind,  and  through  them  human  society.* 

When  looked  at  from  a  naturalistic  point  of  view,  life  is 
easily  explained;  but  when  confused  with  our  allegorical, 
theological  conception  of  things,  inherited  from  the  past,  it 
is  a  profound  mystery  transcending  the  powers  of  the  human 
mind.  And  if  we  qould  for  the  nonce  be  done  with  the 
primitive,  anthropomorphic  way  of  looking  at  things,  we 
would  have  easy  sailing  in  philosophy;  but  alas!  the  very 
words  with  which  we  express  our  ideas  are  full  of  implica- 
tions of  these  earlier  theories  of  things,  and  often  a  natural- 
istic expression  of  a  thought  is  absolutely  impossible. 

It  will  be  seen  that  in  giving  an  explanation  of  life,  I  have 
always  associated  it  with  mind.  This  was  unavoidable. 
Life  and  mind  are  inseparable.  They  are  different  aspects 
of  one  and  the  same  phenomena,  the  organization  of  matter : 
life  primarily  is  the  action  of  the  internal  energies  consti- 
tuting matter,  mind  the  action  of  the  external  energies  con- 
stituting its  conditions.  Or  it  may  be  that  the  phenomenon 
of  life  is  better  defined  as  the  interaction  of  the  internal 
energies  constituting  matter  with  the  external  energies  con- 
stituting the  conditions  of  matter.  In  this  chapter  we  have 
considered  the  organization  of  matter  from  the  point  of  view 
of  life;  in  the  two  following  chapters  the  aspect  of  mind 
will  be  treated. 

*  "The  more  highly  specialized  forms  of  protoplasm  are  effected  by  a  great 
variety  of  physical  agents,  such  as  light,  sound,  pressure  and  so  forth  and  upon 
this  susceptibility  depends  many  of  the  higher  manifestations  of  life.  For 
instance  waves  of  light  or  sound  acting  upon  special  protoplasmic  structures 
in  the  eye  and  in  the  ear,  call  forth  actions  which  ultimately  result  in  the  sen- 
sations of  sight  and  hearing.  Similar  considerations  apply  to  the  sense  of 
smell,  taste  and  touch ;  but  the  discussion  of  these  special  modes  of  protoplasmic 
action  must  be  deferred.  Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  living  organisms 
(that  is,  the  protoplasm  which  is  their  central  part)  are  able  to  respond  to  many 
influences  proceeding  from  the  world  in  which  they  live.  Upon  this  property 
depends  the  ultimate  relation  between  the  organism  and  its  environment,  and 
the  power  of  adaptability  to  the  environment  which  is  one  of  the  most  marvel- 
ous and  characteristic  properties  of  living  things."— Ibid.,  pp.  39, 40. 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE   PHYSICS   OF   THE   SENSES, AND   THE   INTELLECT 

I. 

The  continuity  of  nature  is  a  doctrine  of  so  recent  a  date 
that  despite  our  belief  in  the  law  of  evolution,  we  still  look 
for  the  explanation  of  things  in  their  perfected  forms  instead 
of  their  incipient  manifestations.  When  we  once  arrive  at 
the  conclusion  that  mind  is  a  product  of  nature,  and  not  a 
mysterious  metaphysical  entity  suddenly  transplanted  to 
earth  by  some  occult  power,  we  seriously  begin  tracing  it 
back  from  man  through  the  lower  animals,  until  finally  we 
reach  the  ultimate  energies  of  nature,  and  see  in  them  the 
incipient  manifestation  of  life  and  mind.  Mind  is  a  product 
of  the  senses,  and  the  senses  are  a  result  of  the  energies 
of  nature.  It  takes  no  great  acumen  to  trace  the  evolution 
of  mind  to-day ;  but  it  does  take  considerable  moral  courage 
to  think  and  speak  counter  to  the  greater  part  of  the  human 
race  and  the  example  of  history  on  so  vital  a  problem.* 

A  sense  is  a  result  of  the  way  a  physical,  external  energy, 
light,  heat,  pressure  and  so  forth,  registers  itself  in  an  ani- 
mal organism;  and  after  countless  ages  of  development  ends 
in  a  highly  developed  sense-organ  to  receive  such  external 
energy.  The  registrations  are  the  residua  of  the  impacting 
*'  external,  physical  energies ;  and  it  is  through  them  that  the 

•>  *  "  We  find  that  there  is  a  manifest  power  of  perception  in  most  natural 
bodies,  and  a  kind  of  appetite  to  choose  what  is  agreeable  and  to  avoid  what  is 
disagreeable  to  them.  *  *  *  No  one  body  placed  near  to  another  can  change 
that  other  body  or  be  changed  by  it  unless  a  reciprocal  perception  precedes  the 
operation.  A  body  always  perceives  the  passage  by  which  it  insinuates;  feels 
the  impulse  of  another  body,  where  it  yields  thereto ;  perceives  the  removal  of 
any  body  that  withheld  it,  and  thereupon  recovers  itself;  perceives  the  separa- 
tion of  its  constituents  and  for  a  time  resists  it;  in  fine,  perception  is  diffused 
through  all  nature.*'— Advancement  of  Learning,  Bk.  IV,  Ch.  iii.  FRANCIS  BACON 

38 


PHYSICS  OF  THE  SENSES  AND  INTELLECT   39 

animal  cognizes  and  classifies  similar  external  energies,  such 
registrations  in  the  course  of  countless  ages  developing  into 
the  mind.  The  function  of  the  registrations  is  to  discharge, 
and  furnish  avenues  of  escape  to,  the  internal  energies  of  an 
organism  liberated  by  them,  and  thus  adjust  the  organism 
through  its  motor  apparatus  to  the  environment.  The 
residua  increase  in  number — each  residuum,  impression,  sen- 
sation, perception,  or  idea,  or  whatever  you  may  call  it, 
being  a  path  of  escape  to  the  internal  energies  of  the  organ- 
ism, due  to  partial  chemical  decomposition,  oxidation — 
and  after  countless  ages  of  development  and  organization, 
from  amoeba  to  man,  end  in  the  phenomenon  we  call  intel- 
lect. The  function  of  the  intellect  is  to  direct  the  ensuing 
action  of  the  organism,  due  to  external  stimuli.  It  varies  the 
law  of  action  and  reaction,  the  law  of  expending  energy 
along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance,  determined  by  the 
contending  energies,  by  making  each  reaction  of  an  organ- 
ism not  controlled  by  present  stimulus  alone,  as  in  inorganic 
bodies,  but  controlled  by  ideas,  being  expenditure  of  energy 
through  the  accumulated  experiences  of  the  organism,  from 
the  registration  of  all  the  stimuli  it  has  inherited  from  its 
ancestors,  and  has  experienced  in  its  own  life,  and  all  of  the 
combinations  it  has  been  able  to  form  from  them. 

In  order  that  the  senses  and  the  intellect  may  perform 
their  functions,  animal  organisms  have  developed  an  elab- 
orate motor  apparatus  and  a  complex  nervous  system,  both, 
however,  in  perfect  accord  with  mechanical  laws.  In  the 
beginning  there  was  no  differentiation  of  tissues  in  animals 
and  even  in  highly  developed  animals  now  the  differentia- 
tion of  tissues  is  not  perfect,  one  tissue  often  performing  the 
function  of  another.  Prof.  Jacques  Loeb  says : 

"A  study,  then,  of  comparative  physiology  brings  out  the 
fact  that  irritability  and  conductibility  are  the  only  qualities 
essential  to  reflexes,  and  these  are  both  common  qualities  of 
all  protoplasm.  The  irritable  structures  at  the  surface  of 


40        THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

the  body  and  the  arrangement  of  the  muscles  determine  the 
character  of  the  reflex  act.  The  assumption  that  the  cen- 
tral nervous  system  or  the  ganglion-cells  are  the  bearers  of 
reflex  mechanism  cannot  hold.  But  have  we  now  to  con- 
clude that  nerves  are  superfluous  and  a  waste?  Certainly 
not.  Their  value  lies  in  the  fact  that  they  are  quicker  and 
more  sensitive  conductors  than  undifferentiated  protoplasm. 
Because  of  these  qualities  of  the  nerves  an  animal  is  better 
able  to  adapt  itself  to  changing  conditions  than  it  possibly 
could  if  it  had  no  nerves.  Such  power  of  adaptation  is 
absolutely  necessary  for  free  animals." — Physiology  of  the 
Brain,  pp.  5,  G. 

Each  of  the  senses  of  animals  is  due  to  a  different  kind  of 
energy  in  nature,  and  if  there  were  suddenly  to  appear  in 
nature  a  new  kind  of  energy  which  could  assist  animals  in 
adjusting  themselves  to  their  environment,  and  the  adapta- 
tion was  necessary  and  could  not  be  accomplished  in  any 
other  way,  then  this  new  energy  would  originate  in  animals 
a  sense  to  apprehend  it,  thus  enabling  them  to  adapt  them- 
selves to  their  environment  through  it.  One  sense  is  due  to 
impact,  one  to  light,  one  to  heat,  one  to  sound.  It  took 
ages  of  evolution  to  produce  the  senses  of  man,  but  through 
the  law  of  external  repetition  we  can  trace  their  develop- 
ment; the  eye,  for  example,  from  the  eye-spot  of  the  infu- 
sorian,  through  the  invertebrate,  the  vertebrate,  mammal, 
up  to  the  primates,  then  to  man,  and  new  senses  have  devel- 
oped as  new  energies  were  encountered  and  utilized  in  animal 
development. 

II. 

The  sense  of  touch  is  due  to  the  impact  of  an  external 
body  arousing  residua  of  similar  impacts  registered  in  the 
tissues  of  an  organism,  which  preserves  the  new  impact  and 
classify  it  as  a  line  of  least  resistance  or  greatest  attraction, 
the  resultant  of  the  conditioning  energies,  for  the  discharge 
of  the  liberated  energies  of  the  organism  in  its  reaction  on 


PHYSICS  OF  THE  SENSES  AXD  INTELLECT  41 

the  environment.  For  example,  if  I  touch  a  pebble  on  my 
desk,  it  none  the  less  touches  me ;  but  the  difference  is  that 
there  are  registered  in  my  nervous  system  an  infinite  number 
of  previous  experiences  in  touching  similar  objects  which 
perceive  the  new  experience  and  classify  and  register  it> 
whereas  in  the  case  of  the  pebble,  while  it  experiences  a 
change  in  the  condition  of  its  substance  at  each  experience 
of  touching,  yet  it  has  not  the  power  to  register  them,  hence 
never  acquires  sensibility.  This  is  true  of  all  inanimate  bodies. 

The  sense  of  touch  is  the  disturbed  condition  of  certain 
nerves  in  an  animal  organism  due  to  a  similar  disturbance  in 
the  environment.  Whether  or  not  we  know  an  object 
touched  depends  upon  whether  or  not  we  have  touched  it  or 
similar  objects  before,  knowledge  being  residua  of  former 
touchings.  The  sense  of  touch  is  due  to  pressure  and  con- 
tact, and  differs  in  animals  from  what  we  see  throughout  all 
inorganic  nature  only  in  that  the  animal  has  the  power  to 
keep  records  in  its  tissues  of  all  of  its  experience  with 
external  stimuli  from  pressure  and  contact  to  classify  and 
know  a  new  stimuli.  Whereas  an  inanimate  body  has  not 
this  power,  being  compelled  by  its  composition  to  react  from 
present  stimuli  alone.  The  real  marvel  in  the  development 
of  a  sense  is  not  in  receiving  an  impression,  for  inanimate 
objects  do  that,  but  in  registering  it  and  utilizing  the  expe- 
rience in  reactions  on  the  environment. 

The  function  of  a  sense  is  twofold.  First,  to  receive  the 
impact  of  an  external  energy  which  discharges  some  of  the 
internal  energies  of  the  organism  receiving  it,  which  in  turn 
produce  an  action  of  the  organism  in  the  environment.. 
Secondly,  the  impacting  energy  or  stimulus  is  an  avenue  or 
path  of  escape  to  the  liberated  energy  of  the  organism, 
enabling  it  in  the  ensuing  action,  through  this  stimulus  or 
some  other  similar  one  experienced  before  or  inherited,  to 
move  into  an  environment  that  is  conducive  to  its  welfare,  or 
out  of  an  environment  that  is  inimical  to  its  welfare.  Aui- 


42        THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

mals  in  the  expenditure  of  their  energies  in  their  reactions 
on  nature  follow  the  idea,  representation,  the  line  of  the  least 
resistance  or  the  greatest  attraction  selected  from  all  the 
experiences  of  their  lives  and  what  they  have  inherited  from 
their  ancestors. 

No  doubt  at  first  among  primitive  animals  when  they 
received  impacts  from  external  energies,  the  impacts  set  off 
some  of  the  animal's  energy  resulting  in  a  spasmodic  motion 
which  might  or  might  not  result  in  a  movement  that  was 
beneficial  to  the  organism,  and  which  differed  only  from  the 
meeting  of  two  inorganic  bodies  in  that  the  action  and  reac- 
tion were  not  equal  and  opposite,  that  the  line  of  expenditure 
was  determined  not  by  the  contending  energies  alone  but  by 
experience  from  former  stimuli.  But  after  ages  of  evolution, 
through  the  law  of  natural  selection  and  the  law  of  external 
repetition,  the  channels  of  expenditure  furnished  by  external 
stimuli,  ideas,  became  channels  of  unerring  certainty  as 
methods  of  expenditure,  so  that  now  when  an  organism  of 
the  highest  kind,  say  man,  receives  an  impression  from  the 
environment  that  is  deleterious  to  him,  he  always  moves 
away  from  it,  taking  the  line  of  the  least  resistance ;  and  one 
that  is  beneficial,  he  moves  towards  it  with  the  least  expendi- 
ture of  energy  possible.  There  is  no  mistake  or  uncertainty 
in  the  senses  and  the  intellect  in  man  now  in  directing 
internal  energy  as  there  was  in  the  beginning. 

III. 

Sight  is  external  light  arousing  registered  impressions 
of  light.  The  first  impression  registers  itself,  the  second 
arouses  the  first  and  registers  itself,  and  as  the  registrations 
increase  the  power  of  sight  increases,  and  the  wider  the 
experience  the  greater  the  range  of  vision.  But  while  the 
eye  and  the  optic  lobe,  the  seat  of  the  registrations  of  expe- 
rience with  light,  have  become  wonderful  developments,  yet 
it  is  impossible  for  them  to  see  without  external  light  to 


PHYSICS  OF  THE  SENSES  AND  INTELLECT  43 

arouse  the  registered  impressions  of  the  optic  lobe.  What 
occurs  to  us  when  we  see  an  object  is  that  many  light 
waves  of  different  length  strike  the  retina  and  are  registered 
in  the  brain  tissues.  This  stimulus  arouses  a  similar  num- 
ber of  waves  registered  in  the  brain  tissue  which  act  syn- 
chronously with  those  out  in  nature.  This  action  is  seeing. 
There  is  nothing  more  mysterious  about  it  than  there  is 
about  a  vibrating  tuning-fork  causing  another  like  it  to 
vibrate  which  is  placed  in  its  field.  Or  is  it  more  remark- 
able than  the  telephone  that  transmits  vibrations  of  the 
human  voice  over  hundreds  of  miles  of  wire  charged  with 
electricity?  Or  more  wonderful  than  the  graphophone 
which  mechanically  reproduces  the  vibrations  of  the  human 
voice  after  having  been  mechanically  stored?  A  mirror 
reflects  the  image  of  an  object.  A  photographic  plate 
registers  it.  A  sense  impression  from  light  is  an  analogous 
phenomenon.  The  surprise  in  the  explanation  of  the  senses 
comes  from  the  simplicity  of  the  explanation ;  but  he  who 
studies  nature  closely  knows  its  processes  of  necessity  are 
simple  and  that  it  accomplishes  its  wonders  by  simple  means 
acting  through  aeons  of  time. 

The  first  time  the  human  eye  has  light  reflected  into  it,  it 
sees  nothing.  What  we  see  depends  upon  our  experience 
and  the  experience  of  our  ancestors,  from  the  infusorian  with 
its  eye-spot,  the  first  reaction  of  protoplasm  to  light  through 
successive  changes  in  protoplasm  caused  by  light's  having 
been  registered  in  the  animal  organism  ages  after  ages ;  and 
such  registrations  are  perpetuated  in  successive  generations 
of  animals  through  the  law  of  internal  repetition  until 
finally,  through  inherited  structure  and  incessant  experience, 
we  have  the  human  eye  evolved  with  all  of  its  wonders  and 
possibilities. 

IV. 

Hearing   is  produced  by  external  energy  in  the  form 
of  sound  waves  of  enormous  length  compared  with  those  of 


44        THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

light,  which,  on  striking  the  auditory  lobe,  arouse  residua  of 
similar  waves,  producing  the  sensation  of  sound.  The 
greater  the  variety  of  the  wave  lengths  registered  the  finer 
the  distinction  of  sound.  The  ear  is  one  of  the  last  senses 
to  be  developed  in  the  animal  creation  simply  because  the 
first  forms  of  animal  life  are  incapable  of  taking  advantage 
of  sound  waves  to  perpetuate  their  existence.  Whether  01 
not  the  lower  forms  of  life  can  hear  matters  little  to  them; 
but  to  the  higher  forms  it  is  of  incalculable  benefit,  and  the 
jense  of  hearing  is  very  acute  and  highly  developed.  To 
distinguish  musical  sounds  the  ear  is  one  of  man's  most  won- 
derful faculties. 

The  temperature  sense  is  the  residua  of  impressions  of  heat 
registered  in  an  organism  through  the  law  of  repetition, 
which  receives  and  classifies  similar  impressions  and  fur- 
nishes avenues  for  expending  energies  from  this  class  of 
external  stimuli. 

The  muscular  sense  is  the  residual  impressions  of  pressure 
registered  in  an  organism  through  the  law  of  external  repeti- 
tion which  receives  similar  impressions  and  performs  its 
functions  similar  to  the  other  senses. 

If  there  were  other  external  energies  in  nature  which  could 
forerun  the  hurtful  or  point  out  the  beneficial,  we  would 
have  senses  produced  by  them.  There  may  be  many 
unknown  forms  of  energy,  but  they  are  unknown  to  us 
because  they  are  neutral  to  our  existence. 

5  V. 

Scientists  do  not  admit  that  the  internal  vibrations 
registered  in  the  nervous  system  of  animals  are  identical 
with  the  external  vibrations  in  the  environment  causing  them ; 
yet  they  must  be  identical  or  else  we  would  have  unlike 
knowing  like  for  the  first  time  in  all  nature.  Nor  do  they 
attempt  to  explain  how  vibrations  in  the  environment  can 
cause  ideas  that  are  invariably  aroused  by  them  and  yet  are 


PHYSICS  OF  THE  SENSES  AND  INTELLECT  45 

not  composed  of  identical  vibrations.  George  J.  Romenes  in 
his  lecture,  "Body  and  Mind,"  says:  "A  sensory  nerve 
which  at  the  surface  of  its  expansion  is  able  to  respond 
differently  to  difference  of  musical  pitch,  of  temperature  and 
even  of  color  is  probably  able  to  vibrate  very  much  more 
rapidly.  .  .  .  We  are  not  entitled  indeed  to  conclude  that 
the  nerves  of  special  sense  vibrate  in  actual  unison,  or 
synchronize,  with  their  external  sources  of  stimulation,  but 
we  are,  I  think,  bound  to  conclude  that  they  must  vibrate  in 
some  numerical  proportion  to  them  (else  we  should  not  per- 
ceive objective  differences  in  sound,  in  temperature  and  in 
color).  .  .  .  There  is  a  constant  ratio  between  the  amount 
of  agitation  produced  in  a  sensory  nerve  and  the  intensity  of 
the  corresponding  sensation." 

Just  as  we  know  through  the  spectrum  analysis  the  con- 
stitution of  astronomical  bodies,  because  the  vibrations  of 
light  of  given  substances  in  them  are  identical  with  the 
vibrations  of  light  of  the  same  kind  of  substances  here  on 
earth,  so  do  we  know  that  the  registered  energies  in  organ- 
isms are  identical  with  those  in  nature,  and  the  time  will 
come  when  instruments  will  be  invented  which  will  demon- 
strate that  these  residual  registrations  of  the  energies  of 
nature — ideas — are  identical  with  the  physical  energies  caus- 
ing them. 

In  an  hypnotized  person,  when  an  image  is  projected  from 
the  mind  of  the  subject  into  nature,  the  phenomena  follow 
the  same  laws  of  physics  as  if  the  image  came  from  external 
nature  into  the  eye,  thence  to  the  mind.  Fere  suggested  to  a 
patient  that  on  a  dark  table  there  was  a  portrait  in  profile. 
When  she  awoke  she  distinctly  saw  the  portrait  where  she 
had  been  told  to  see  it,  and  when  a  prism  was  placed  before 
her  eye,  she  was  highly  surprised  to  see  two  profiles.  Moll 
Hypnotism,  pp.  280-1.  Is  this  not  a  proof  that  the  energies 
constituting  an  idea  are  identical  with  the  energies  pro- 
ducing it,  that  is,  in  this  case,  light?  Had  there  been  a  real 


40         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

portrait  on  the  table  the  prism  before  the  eye  would  have 
made  it  appear  double.  In  the  example  the  only  energy  was 
the  energy  constituting  the  idea,  and  as  the  prism  caused 
the  phenomenon  of  doubleness  we  are  justified  in  concluding 
that  the  energies  constituting  the  idea  are  the  stored  ener- 
gies of  light. 

Only  like  can  know  like.  Just  as  a  vibrating  tuning-fork 
causes  all  other  tuning-forks  in  its  field  that  are  like  it  to 
vibrate  in  unison  with  it,  so  do  all  external  energies  cause 
their  residual  representations  in  the  nervous  tissues  of  ani- 
mals to  vibrate  in  unison  with  them,  such  a  synchronism 
being  knowledge  itself.  If  the  mind  is  not  the  residual  rep- 
resentations of  external  energies  identical  with  it,  stored  in 
the  animal  organism  through  the  course  of  aeons,  then, 
indeed,  it  is  inexplicable.  If  mind  grew  up  in  nature  as  all 
science  teaches  that  it  did,  what  else  could  have  produced  it? 
If  this  explanation  of  mind  is  not  true,  then,  indeed,  not 
only  is  the  universe  inexplicable  and  unknowable,  but  also 
the  phenomena  of  our  own  little  world ;  for  there  is  no  such 
a  thing  as  natural  knowledge,  science  is  but  a  dream,  and 
man  the  sorry  dupe  of  his  own  nature.  But  happily  such  is 
not  the  case.  Despite  our  preconceived  notions,  despite  our 
personal  interests  and  individual  preferences,  despite  igno- 
rance and  error,  the  truth  as  here  given  is  destined  to  be  the 
common  property  of  the  whole  race  in  the  immediate  future. 
This  is  the  glorious  hope  that  sustains  scientific  investigators 
in  their  arduous  labors. 

When  we  are  born  we  have  neither  senses  nor  intellect,  but 
the  constant  action  of  external  energies  upon  our  inherited 
sense  and  brain  structures  soon  develops  the  senses,  and 
within  a  few  years  the  intellect.  If  a  child  is  deprived  of 
experience  with  the  environment,  it  never  develops  either 
senses  or  intellect.  Now  this  would  not  be  the  case  if  the 
mind  were  a  metaphysical  entity,  as  it  is  supposed  to  be. 
There  would  be  no  occasion  for  its  development ;  for  it  is 


PHYSICS  OF  THE  SENSES  AND  INTELLECT  47 

naturally  perfect.  But  if  the  mind  in  nature  is  a  natural 
product,  then  it  stands  to  reason  it  would  have  to  pass 
through  a  process  of  evolution  and  development.  With  the 
slow  development  of  mind  in  our  children  before  our  eyes 
every  day,  with  the  memory  of  our  own  development  con- 
stantly before  us,  it  is  passing  strange  that  the  origination 
and  development  of  the  senses  and  the  intellect  is  not  seen  to 
be  due  to  external  physical  energies ;  but  such  is  certainly 
not  the  case.  It  seems  more  difficult  to  see  the  patent  than 
the  delitescent  facts  of  nature — life,  mind  and  society. 

VI. 

In  the  case  of  the  four  intellectual  senses,  the 
recorded  impression — idea — is  the' avenue  through  which  the 
internal  energies  of  the  organism,  due  to  partial  chemical 
decomposition,  is  discharged,  resulting  in  a  movement  of  the 
organism  as  a  whole,  beginning  in  aimless  reflex  action  and 
ending  in  reason,  the  rigid  adjustment  of  means  to  ends. 
At  first  the  energy  in  the  environment  set  up  an  action  in 
the  organism  that  was  aimless.  It  differed  from  a  reaction 
of  an  inanimate  object  in  that  only  a  part  of  the  internal  ener- 
gies of  the  compound  is  discharged.  It  is  properly  called 
reflex.  By  the  law  of  natural  selection  and  the  law  of 
repetition  a  second  form  of  reflex  action  is  developed.  The 
internal  energies  of  the  organism  are  still  discharged 
through  the  avenue  of  the  one  experience  but  not  aimlessly, 
the  external  energy  setting  up  in  the  organism  an  action 
identical  with  itself,  causing  a  movement  of  the  organism  as 
a  whole  away  from  energies  that  are  hurtful  and  towards 
energies  that  are  beneficial.  The  energies  in  external 
nature  are  the  conditions  of  matter,  and  many  of  them 
forerun  the  bodies  of  which  they  are  the  properties,  so  that 
external  energies  give  warning  of  danger  or  herald  the 
approach  of  safety.  But  for  this  property  of  living  matter, 
its  ability  to  perceive  external  nature  at  a  distance,  it  could 


48        THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

not  exist  at  all,  and  its  power  of  doing  so  has  grown 
from  the  incipient  manifestation  seen  in  inanimate  objects, 
when  they  vibrate  to  external  vibrations,  up  to  its  perfec- 
tion in  man  who  can  predict  events  for  years  and  years  to 
come. 

The  power  of  an  organism  to  act  from  concepts,  instead  of 
from  present  stimuli,  in  its  most  developed  form  as  seen  dis- 
played in  man,  is  called  intellect.  In  the  inorganic  world 
action  and  reaction  are  always  equal  and  opposite,  energy 
expends  itself  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  determined 
solely  by  the  contending  energies;  but  with  the  origination  of 
mind  a  fourth  law  of  motion  is  developed  which  gives  the 
reaction  of  an  impression  on  an  organism  an  option  on  all  its 
lines  of  reaction,  instincts,  ideas,  concepts,  originated  in  its 
own  life  or  inherited  from  its  ancestors  to  determine  its  action 
in  every  stimulation.  This  process  of  selecting  ideas,  lines  for 
the  expenditure  of  internal  energy,  is  reasoning,  or  thought. 
Sometimes  it  is  very  elaborate,  taking  years  to  come  to  a 
conclusion;  other  times  it  is  almost  instantaneous.  A  fine 
mind  discovers  new  ways  of  expending  its  energies,  orig- 
inates new  ideas.  Thinking  is  nothing  more  than  the  ener- 
gies liberated  by  a  present  stimulus  under  the  guidance  of  the 
ego,  seeking  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  in  their  reaction 
or  discharge,  going  over  all  of  the  ideas  or  concepts  recorded 
in  the  brain  of  the  animal  and  selecting  the  idea  or  concept 
that  expends  energies  most  economically;  or  in  common 
parlance,  adapting  means  to  ends.  Sometimes,  as  in  the 
actions  of  men,  hundreds  of  ideas  are  used  in  one  action,  the 
reaction  being  so  complicated.  Again,  as  in  reflex  action, 
the  present  stimulus  alone  furnishes  the  avenue  for  the 
expenditure  of  the  internal  energies,  the  reaction  is  so  sim- 
ple and  must  be  performed  so  quickly. 

Mind  has  grown  up  unconsciously.  It  acts  now  auto- 
matically. There  is  very  little  deliberate  thinking.  A 
stimulus  is  presented  to  the  mind  through  a  sense  organ 


PHYSIOS  OF  THE  SENSES  AND  INTELLECT  49 

which  arouses  internal  energies  that  must  be  expended  in 
actions.  Now  some  idea  must  guide  the  expenditure  of  the 
energy.  If  the  action  is  made  at  once,  perhaps  the  best 
idea,  the  one  capable  of  expending  the  energy  with  the 
greatest  economy,  will  not  be  selected,  then  we  say  we  have 
made  a  mistake,  for  afterwards  we  discover  a  more  econom- 
ical way  of  expending  our  energies.  To  say  that  thinking  is 
selecting  ideas  for  the  expenditure  of  energies,  and  that  an 
idea  is  an  avenue  for  the  expenditure  of  energies  in  an  ani- 
mal organism,  may  be  a  new  way  of  expressing  the  facts,  but 
the  more  one  thinks  about  it  the  more  the  truth  of  the 
explanation  dawns  upon  one.  It  is  a  naturalistic  explana- 
tion of  the  mind  and  is  destined  to  conquer  the  philosophical 
world. 

VII. 

In  nature,  among  inorganic  compounds,  the  line  of  the 
least  resistance  is  always  followed,  for  in  that  case  there 
can  be  no  possible  chance  for  variation  of  effects,  because 
the  reaction  of  inorganic  compounds  have  only  one  line  of 
expenditure  open  to  them — the  present  impact  or  stimulus. 
Intellect  or  mind  consists  of  registered  impressions,  concepts, 
mental  pictures,  which  are  possible  avenues  of  expending 
liberated  energy  of  organisms  in  reactions  due  to  external 
stimuli,  causing  movements  of  the  organism  and  controlling 
the  movement  from  present  stimuli.  In  the  course  of  time 
these  pictures  of  nature,  vibrated  into  the  brain  tissues, 
through  the  senses,  following  the  law  of  repetition  and  the 
law  of  natural  selection,  become  a  miniature  nature,  a  mir- 
ror of  real  nature,  so  that  the  highest  organization  of  mat- 
ter— man — may  have  within  himself  a  knowledge  of  all 
nature,  which  is  both  beneficial  and  hurtful  to  him,  to  be 
used  by  him  as  a  guide  in  his  movements  in  real  nature ;  and 
thus  overcome  the  law  of  action  and  reaction,  the  law  that 
all  energy  in  nature  takes  the  line  of  the  least  resistance 
determined  by  the  contending  energies,  the  reaction  in  this 


50         THE   SOCIALIZATION   O'F   HUMANITY 

case  being  determined  by  mind,  ideas,  concepts,  instead  of 
the  present  external  stimuli. 

The  mind  is  the  representation  of  the  energies  of  external 
nature,  a  miniature  nature  registered  in  an  organism  which 
enables  it  to  rise  above  the  chain  of. cause  and  effect  of  pres- 
ent stimuli  by  introducing  the  chain  of  cause  and  effect  of 
the  past,  inherited  from  all  of  its  ancestors  and  experienced 
in  its  entire  life,  making  all  of  this  experience  a  possible 
factor  in  every  action,  thus  enabling  its  possessor  to  know, 
modify  and  improve  real  nature — its  prototype — by  following 
the  fourth  law  of  motion,  the  fourth  law  of  the  expenditure 
of  energy  in  nature,  that  is,  of  using  in  every  reaction  all  the 
recorded  methods  of  the  expenditure  of  energy  of  the  race, 
its  ideas  and  knowledge,  as  well  as  of  its  own  life,  in  order 
that  it  may  expend  its  energy  along  the  line  of  the  least 
possible  resistance  and  the  greatest  possible  economy.  By 
the  sameness  of  the  external  energies  in  nature  and  their 
residual  representations  in  the  brain,  the  laws  of  nature 
become  the  laws  of  mind,  and  the  conditions  of  nature  may 
be  modified  through  the  mind  to  human  advantage.  For 
individuality,  consisting  of  the  will  and  the  intellect,  really 
constitute  the  whole  of  nature ;  the  will  being  the  highest 
manifestation  of  the  energies  constituting  matter,  the  intel- 
lect being  the  highest  manifestations  of  the  energies  consti- 
tuting the  conditions  of  matter.  The  individual,  thus  in 
addition  to  being  a  perfect  representation  of  external 
nature,  is  nature  itself,  being  the  highest  compound  of 
nature  yet  produced  through  the  law  of  internal  repetition 
by  the  internal  energies  constituting  matter. 

In  the  developed  form  of  modern  man  the  individual  has 
become  so  powerful  through  his  representations  of  external 
energies — his  intellect — that  he  is  not  only  able  to  use  his 
own  energies  to  the  greatest  possible  advantage  to  himself, 
but  is  able  to  turn  nearly  all  of  the  energies  of  nature  to  his 
own  especial  use  and  advantage.  This  is  the  reason  the 


PHYSICS  OF  THE  SENSES  AND  INTELLECT  51 

human  species  is  the  conqueror  of  the  earth.  All  other 
compounds  and  organisms  of  nature  are  but  parts  of  nature, 
but  man,  through  his  mind  (will  and  intellect),  is  a  part  of 
nature  (will)  plus  a  perfect  representation  of  nature  (intel- 
lect), thus  nature  (the  matter  and  energies  constituting  the 
universe)  registers  in  a  part  of  nature  (man)  a  representation 
of  the  whole  of  nature  (the  intellect),  thereby  enabling  the 
part  (man)  to  control  and  use  the  original  whole  of  nature, 
through  that  return  of  nature  upon  itself,  caused  by  the  law 
of  repetition,  which  we  call  knowing  and  consciousness. 
Knowing  is  the  registered  impressions  of  external  energies 
receiving  and  classifying  a  new  impression  of  the  same  ener- 
gies. To  classify  is  to  know,  and  to  name  is  to  classify. 
Inanimate  objects  know,  but  their  knowledge  is  confined  to 
one  experience.  When  one  vibrating  object  sets  another  to 
vibrating  the  process  is  incipient  knowledge.  The  nervous 
system  is  but  a  delicate  organization  that  vibrates  in  unison 
with  all  the  energies  of  nature,  such  vibration  being  man's 
knowledge  of  nature.  Nature  is  but  one  vast  system  of 
vibrations,  and  the  intellect  is  but  residual  impressions  of  it, 
synchronously  adjusted  to  it  by  the  law  of  external  repeti- 
tion, and  preserved  and  developed  by  countless  ages  of  expe- 
rience through  the  law  of  internal  repetition — heredity. 

Self-consciousness  is  registered  impressions  of  ourself,  the 
energies  constituting  matter  composing  our  bodies,  classify- 
ing a  new  impression  of  ourself.  Just  as  the  external  ener- 
gies of  nature  registering  themselves  in  specialized  tissues  of 
our  organism  formed  the  senses  and  the  brain,  so  the  internal 
energies  of  our  organism  registered  themselves  in  the  same 
specialized  tissues  of  our  organism,  and  we  call  these  regis- 
tered impressions  our  personality,  our  ego;  and  now  when  an 
external  energy  makes  an  impression  on  our  organism  it 
affects  the  ego,  for  the  ego  is  the  seat  of  the  energies  consti- 
tuting our  organism. 

Intellect  is  thus  found  to  be  a  natural  phenomenon  devel- 


52         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

oped  from  the  property  of  matter  which  communicates  its 
conditions  to  surrounding  matter.  Animate  matter  differs 
from  inanimate  matter  simply  in  being  able  to  register  these 
conditions  through  the  law  of  internal  repetition  and  the  law 
of  natural  selection,  which,  during  countless  ages,  has  devel- 
oped the  intellect  of  man  as  we  see  it  to-day. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE     CHEMISTRY     OP     THE     SENSES,     THE     EMOTIONS     AND 

THE  WILL 

I. 

Now,  while  external  energies,  following  the  law  of 
external  repetition,  are  repeating,  registering  and  classifying 
themselves  in  animal  organisms,  creating  the  senses  and 
thus  developing  the  intellect,  the  internal  energies  of  animal 
organisms,  following  the  law  of  internal  repetition,  are 
undergoing  a  corresponding  development,  which,  beginning 
in  chemism,  develop  the  senses  of  taste  and  smell  and  end 
in  developing  the  will  and  all  the  desires,  the  hopes  and 
fears,  love,  religion,  humanity — all  the  emotions  of  the 
human  heart.  The  senses  of  taste  and  smell  are  due  to 
chemical  energies  of  matter  following  the  line  of  the  least 
resistance  or  greatest  attraction  through  the  tissues  of  the 
organism  in  which  they  act  as  it  is  influenced  by  surround- 
ing objects.  Their  function  is  to  build  up  the  body,  not  the 
intellect;  and,  through  their  highest  product  (the  emotions) 
they  effect  all  the  other  wonderful  organizations  of  matter 
(tribes,  nations)  and  will  ultimately  effect  the  perfect  social- 
ization of  the  entire  human  race. 

The  senses  of  taste  and  smell  accept  and  take  into  the 
body  substances  with  which  they  come  in  contact  compatible 
with  the  body  in  which  they  act  and  constitute,  and  avoid 
every  object  incompatible.  The  internal  energies  in  the 
form  of  emotions,  possessed  alike  by  all  individuals,  form 
tribes,  nations  and  races;  those  individuals  being  killed  or 
expelled  which  do  not  feel  and  believe  with  the  commonality. 
And  ultimately  the  socialization  of  the  entire  human  race 

53 


54        THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

will  be  effected  after  our  great  conflict  of  contending  emo- 
tions and  beliefs  ends  in  the  truth,  by  the  entire  race  being 
bound  together  in  one  common  emotion — religion  based  on 
morality.  Thus  we  see  that  the  chemical  energies  are  capa- 
ble of  as  wide  a  differentiation  and  development  as  are  the 
external  energies,  being  the  basis  -of  all  human  energy,  both 
individual  and  social.  They  furnish  the  motor  power  of  the 
organism.  It  is  to  chemical  energy  that  all  animal  move- 
ment is  due  and  the  profound  evolutionary  movement  of  the 
social  organism  is  no  exception. 

Beginning  in  the  simple  process  of  building  up  the  animal 
body  in  the  form  of  the  senses  of  taste  and  smell,  the  internal 
energies  then  make  the  further  organization  of  matter  of 
joining  the  sexes  together  in  the  emotion  of  love ;  and  this  is 
followed  by  making  the  greatest  organization  of  matter  pos- 
sible in  the  emotion  of  religion,  binding  the  tribe,  the  nation, 
and  ultimately  the  whole  race,  together  in  one  organism. 
The  possibilities  of  the  internal  energies  beginning  in  chem- 
ism  are  thus  seen  to  be  as  great  as  the  possibilities  of  exter- 
nal energies  beginning  in  light,  heat  and  so  forth,  and  ending 
in  the  intellect  and  self -consciousness  of  the  individual,  and 
ultimately  in  the  conscious  existence  of  the  entire  race. 

There  is  thus  a  radical  difference  in  the  origin  and  func- 
tion of  the  senses  of  animals.     The  senses  of  taste  and  smell 
are  chemical  senses;   the  senses  of  sight,  hearing  and  touch 
are  physical  senses.     The  first  form  of  the  senses  of  taste  and 
jsmell  is  the  atomic  and  molecular  affinity  of  matter  attracting 
'^matter  with  which  it  can  combine,  and  repelling  matter  with 
i  which  it  is  incapable  of  effecting  combination.     And  this 
characteristic  is  seen  throughout  all  of  the  higher  manifes- 
tations of  internal  energies — in  love,  and  likewise  in  religion, 
as  we  will  demonstrate  later  on.     The  chemical  senses  have 
for  their  function  the  building  up  of  the  body  of  an  organ- 
ism in  which  they  act;   they  bind  it  together,  in  its  higher 
manifestations  they  unify  it.     The  function  of  the  physical 


CHEMISTEY  OF  SENSES,  EMOTIONS,  WILL   55 

senses  (sight,  touch  and  so  forth)  is  to  keep  the  animal 
organism  free  from  injury  and  to  guide  it  into  benefits;  and 
this  is  its  function  in  all  of  its  higher  manifestation,  in  the 
form  of  intellect  and  social  consciousness.  The  chemical 
senses  might  be  called  static,  the  physical  sense  dynamic, 
and  this  distinction  is  seen  in  all  of  the  higher  manifesta- 
tions of  each  of  them.  Whatever  is  pleasant  to  the  taste  is 
usually  capable  of  being  assimilated  by  the  organism,  and 
whatever  is  not  is  incapable  of  assimilation.  A  person  com- 
pelled to  live  upon  a  disagreeable  food  soon  learns  to  like  it, 
then  craves  it  when  it  has  once  become  a  part  of  his  body. 
Appetite  for  a  substance  is  little  more  than  certain  kinds  of 
substances  in  the  body  which  produce  a  painful  sensation 
when  not  constantly  replaced  by  similar  substances  in  the 
environment.  It  is  the  function  of  smell  and  taste  to  find 
suitable  foods  in  the  environment  with  which  to  replenish 
the  body  in  the  exhaustion  of  its  tissues  in  its  many  actions, 
individual  and  social.  But  for  the  senses  of  taste  and  smell 
to  guide  an  animal  in  finding  its  necessary  food  it  would  soon 
die ;  and  but  for  the  higher  manifestations  of  the  internal 
energies  in  the  form  of  love  and  religion,  there  could  be  nc 
perpetuation  of  life,  and  no  ultimate  social  organization 
compassing  the  whole  race. 

Experiences  from  the  senses  of  taste  and  smell  registered 
in  animals  develop  into  will,  desire,  love,  religion  and  all  of 
the  emotions  of  the  human  heart.  Each  of  these  manifesta- 
tions of  the  primal  internal  energies  of  matter  has  the  primal 
function  of  binding  the  object  in  which  it  acts  into  an 
organism,  let  it  be  inorganic  matter,  an  animal,  man  or 
human  society.  The  language  of  love  is  that  of  taste.  The 
greatest  compliment  a  lover  can  pay  the  object  of  his  affec- 
tion is  to  call  her  sweet.  The  function  of  love  is  that  of 
reproduction,  and  sexual  reproduction  is  only  a  differentia- 
tion from  the  phenomenon  of  nutrition.  The  copulative  act. 
among  Amoebae  ends  in  the  union  of  the  conjugating 


50         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

bodies.  It  is  a  form  of  eating.  And  even  among  the  high- 
est animals  the  ovum  may  be  said  to  devour  the  sperma- 
tozoon. Love  is  true  to  its  differentiation.  Even  in  man  it 
uses  actions  and  words  indicative  of  its  primitive  origin  in 
its  kisses,  embraces  and  endearing  terms. 

And  the  language  of  religion  is  that  of  love.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  tell  in  the  Bible  in  some  of  the  rhapsodies  of  the 
prophets  whether  their  language  is  addressed  to  God  or  to 
some  beautiful  human  being.  It  is  useless  to  give  quota- 
tions. And  the  manifestations  of  religion  as  seen  in  the 
numerous  monasteries  expresses  itself  in  terms  of  adoration 
to  deity  like  the  rhapsodies  of  a  frenzied  lover.  And  the  best 
conception  of  God  yet  originated  defines  Him  as  Love,  and 
of  all  the  means  of  arousing  religion  none  surpass  the  belief 
in  one  God  binding  the  race  together  in  one  family,  one 
brotherhood.  And  the  highest  form  of  religion  (the  religion 
of  morality)  simply  demonstrates  the  unity  of  the  human 
race,  the  brotherhood  of  man,  the  continuity  and  unity  of  all 
nature  (matter,  life,  mind,  society)  and  makes  religion  due  to 
service  to  humanity,  building  up  the  race,  unifying  it ;  and 
the  language  of  this  religion,  too,  is  that  of  love. 

Desire  and  will  are  closely  associated  with  man's  assimi- 
lative nature.  They  are  differentiations  of  hunger  and 
want,  to  the  building  up  and  the  tearing  down  of  the  animal 
organism  or  its  perpetuation.  The  senses  of  taste  and  smell 
are  not  intellectual.  We  do  not  think  in  their  terms.  We 
express  our  emotions  in  their  terms.  The  senses  of  sight, 
touch,  hearing,  while  produced  by  physical  energies,  end  in 
the  intellect,  and  may  be  called  either  intellectual  or  physi- 
cal senses.  "We  think  in  terms  of  sight.  We  see  a  propo- 
sition. Taste  and  smell  are  blind.  Will,  desire,  love, 
religion — all  the  emotions  are  blind.  They  are  but  devel- 
oped forms  of  the  blind  internal,  chemical  energies  of  nature. 
In  the  course  of  our  investigation  we  shall  find  that  will, 
desire,  love,  religion  are  unconscious,  and,  if  not  guided  by 


CHEMISTRY  OF  SENSES,  EMOTIONS,  WILL    57 

the  intellect  and  knowledge,  are  perfectly  irrational.  Intel- 
lect, with  its  highest  development  (the  social  sense),  is  the 
eye  of  the  will,  desire,  love,  religion,  the  heart,  or  sensibility 
of  an  organism  such  as  man.  Intellect  in  its  highest  mani- 
festations sees  the  way  that  will  is  directed,  desire  sated, 
love  gratified,  religion  obeyed.  And  as  taste  and  smell  are 
for  the  primary  function  of  nutrition,  so  are  desire,  will  and 
love  for  the  function  of  reproduction,  and  religion  for  the 
function  of  protection,  perpetuation  and  perfection  of  the 
tribe,  the  nation,  and  in  time  the  entire  human  race. 
Reproduction  is  but  a  differentiation  of  nutrition,  and  relig- 
ion does  for  the  social  organism  what  love  does  for  the  ani- 
mal organism. 

The  senses  of  taste  and  smell  are  the  means  whereby  the 
body  accumulates  its  energies.  The  senses  of  sight,  touch 
and  so  forth  produce  the  intellect,  and  it  is  through  the 
intellect  that  the  body  expends  its  energies.  Ideas  are  so 
many  paths  through  which  human  energy  can  flow;  the 
energy  being  will,  desire,  love,  fear,  religion.  But  for  the 
intellect  man's  body  would  be  subject  to  the  law  of  action 
and  reaction,  and  would  be  as  incapable  of  using  the  ener- 
gies of  nature  as  a  clod.  But  for  the  senses  of  smell  and 
taste  animals  would  soon  become  extinct,  being  unable  to 
find  suitable  materials  with  which  to  replenish  their  wasting 
bodies.  But  for  desire,  love,  will,  animals  would  soon 
become  extinct,  because  they  would  have  no  incentive  to 
reproduce  and  perpetuate  their  kind.  Only  for  religion 
humanity  would  become  extinct,  for  it  would  not  have  any 
emotion  broad  enough  to  bind  the  race  together  in  a  single . 
organization.  The  senses  of  taste  and  smell  finally  end  in 
the  emotions;  the  senses  of  touch,  sight,  and  so  forth,  finally 
end  in  the  intellect  and  the  social  sense.  It  is  the  function 
of  the  intellect  in  the  individual  to  control  the  emotions  and 
furnish  an  avenue  for  their  expenditure  so  that  they  will 
best  conserve  the  being  possessing  them. 


58         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

The  social  emotions  will  be  treated  more  fully  in  a  subse- 
quent part  of  this  work  and  the  remarks  here  made  on  love 
and  religion  are  made  only  to  show  the  scope  of  the  theory 

propounded. 

II. 

The  union  of  the  two  forms  of  sense  perceptions  pro- 
duce the  phenomenon  of  self -consciousness.  The  physical 
senses  being  in  connection  with  the  internal  energies  are 
thus  connected  with  one  another,  they  using  the  nervous 
system  as  a  means  of  communication.  The  union  of  the 
external  energies,  and  their  product  (the  intellect),  and  the 
internal  energies  and  their  product  (the  will  and  the  emo- 
tions), gives  rise  to  the  most  remarkable  phenomenon  in 
nature,  the  ego  or  self-consciousness.  What  is  the  ego?  In 
its  first  form  the  ego  is  what  an  animal  feels  to  be  its  life. 
It  is  the  sensation  of  life  in  our  body.  In  its  final  form  it  is 
the  internal  energies  of  protoplasm  in  their  developed  form 
of  life,  consisting  of  the  will  and  the  emotions,  cognized  by 
the  internal  energies  of  nature  in  their  residual,  stored  form 
of  intellect.  The  chemism  of  matter  is  the  basis  of  the  ego. 
Out  of  it  is  developed  the  will  and  the  emotions.  Just  as 
external  energies  repeating  themselves  in  an  organism  give 
rise  to  a  body  of  sensation  which  we  call  a  sense,  so  the 
energies  of  one's  life  constantly  repeating  themselves  in  his 
body  give  rise  to  a  body  of  sensations  which  we  call  self. 
Man  is  a  compound  animal  and  it  is  through  the  ego  that  his 
differentiated  parts  are  unified,  the  ego  being  the  basis  of 
the  organization.  A  person  says:  "My  intellect,"  that  is, 
self's  intellect,  the  internal  energy's  intellect;  because  the 
sense  registrations  or  intellect  is  dependent  upon,  registered 
in,  grown  upon  the  will  or  self.  Everything  belongs  to  one's 
will  or  self,  one's  internal  energies ;  for  they  are  the  begin- 
ning of  every  form  of  matter.  Self-consciousness  is  the 
impression  that  one's  internal  energies,  constantly  perform- 
ing the  functions  of  life,  make  upon  one's  nervous  system 


CHEMISTRY  OF  SENSES,  EMOTIONS,  WILL    59 

and  the  rest  of  his  body ;  such  impressions  after  repeating  and 
registering  themselves  finally  become  capable  of  cognizing  a 
new  impression  as  a  sense  impression  is  cognized  by  any  of  the 
senses.  Consciousness  in  general  is  the  receiving  and  cogniz- 
ing of  any  impression,  and  when  the  registered  impressions  of 
the  internal  energies,  that  are  being  constantly  liberated  in  per- 
forming the  usual  functions  of  life,  cognize  a  new  impression 
of  themselves,  or  when  a  new  impression  of  them  arouses  the 
registered  impressions,  then  we  have  the  phenomenon  of 
self -consciousness  or  the  ego.  This  is  why  it  is  that  while 
we  are  only  one  person,  yet  are  competent  to  watch  our- 
selves, being  in  the  same  mental  phenomenon  the  object  and 
the  subject.  The  registered  impressions  in  the  form  of  the 
ego  watch  the  internal  energies  making  some  new  impres- 
sion, and  the  new  impression  is  as  much  ourselves  as  is  our 
ego,  and  we  recognize  it  as  such,  although  heretofore  not 
being  able  to  explain  the  phenomenon. 

When  one  is  self-conscious  there  are  two  aspects  to  the 
feeling,  part  of  it  is  located  in  the  nervous  system,  registered 
impressions  of  self  and  part  within  the  body,  the  energies 
constituting  life,  making  a  new  impression  on  our  registered 
impressions  of  self.  Self -consciousness  is  nothing  more  than 
registered  impressions  of  one's  own  vitality  receiving  another 
impression  of  one's  vitality.  So  one  may  be  conscious  of 
being  conscious ;  the  internal  energies  constituting  self  mak- 
ing a  new  impression  on  the  registered  internal  energies  con- 
stituting the  ego.  All  knowing  comes  from  like  impressions 
receiving  like  impressions.  All  consciousness  comes  from 
impressions  arousing  similar  impressions,  consciousness 
being  the  harmony  or  synchronism  existing  among  them.* 

III. 

The  answer  to  all  this  is,  that  it  is  materialism.     Well 

*  "Physiology  thus  appears  as  a  branch  of  applied  physics,  its  problems  be- 
ing a  reduction  of  vital  phenomena  to  general  physical  laws,  and  thus  ulti- 
mately to  the  fundamental  laws  of  mechanics."—  William  Wundt. 


60         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

what  of  it?  Does  it  help  matters  any  to  designate  systems 
of  thought  by  opprobrious  names?  The  question  is,  is  the 
foregoing  explanation  of  life  and  mind  true  or  approxi- 
mately true,  or  is  it  even  a  working  hypothesis?*  Does  it 
help  one  to  formulate  a  better  conception  of  nature,  life, 
mind  and  society,  so  that  one  may  more  effectively  live, 
develop  his  nature  to  its  fullest  capacity,  to  help  perfect  society 
so  that  it  may  realize  its  true  function  of  perfecting  the 
individual?  Let  the  sequel  answer. 

Prof.  A.  E.  Dolbear  says:  "As  no  one  has  been  able  to 
see  how  vital  and  physical  phenomena  are  correlated,  men 
have  been  loth  to  believe  it  to  be  a  fact — a  mental  position 
which  assumes  before  a  relation  can  be  logically  accepted  it 
must  be  explained,  which  is  not  true.  The  relation  between 
mechanical  energy  and  electrical  energy  is  very  definitely 
known,  yet  it  has  not  been  explained ;  but  in  this  question 
there  is  no  personal  equation,  no  such  lively  interest  in  its 
settlement  as  in  the  other.  The  one  has  only  mechanical 
interests,  the  other  is  so  much  a  sociological  question  as  to 
threaten  war  involving  church  and  state.  Dr.  Buruard,  a 
former  president  of  Columbia  College,  said  concerning  a 
debatable  question  in  science,  that  if  it  were  true,  he  did 
not  want  to  know  it,  and  that  is  the  way  a  large  number  of 
persons  feel  about  this  question  of  life  and  its  relation  to 
ordinary  matter." — Biological  Lectures,  1894,  Marine 
Biological  Laboratory,  p.  5. 

Most  of  our  investigations  of  nature  are  made  with  the 
intention  of  establishing  preconceived  notions  and  theories 
of  things  in  which  we  have  financial  or  social  interests; 
instead  of  being  unbiased  expositions  of  the  facts,  they  are 
adroitly  presented  arguments  to  uphold  our  beliefs.  It  is 
the  function  of  the  philosopher  to  give  the  efficient  reasons 

*  "The  unfrultfulness  of  brain  investigation  is  due,  however,  only  partially 
to  the  difficulty  of  the  matter.  The  main  cause  seems  to  be  the  entire  absence 
of  any  working  hypothesis,  or  even  an  approximate  idea,  as  to  the  nature  of 
cerebral  activity."— History  of  Materialism,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  112.  by  F.  A.  LANGE. 


CHEMISTRY  OF  SENSES,  EMOTIONS,  WILL   61 

and  causes  of  all  phenomena  based  on  facts,  no  matter  how 
unpleasant  they  are,  if  true.  Any  one  who  has  not  the 
courage  and  honesty  to  follow  where  the  facts  lead  is 
unworthy  the  name  of  philosopher,  and  any  one  who  fears  to 
follow  the  facts  is  a  moral  coward  and  deserves  his  fate  of 
superstition  and  ignorance.  No  man  is  a  man  but  the 
thinker,  and  no  man  can  think  except  in  an  atmosphere  of 
freedom  and  bases  his  thought  on  the  solid  rock  of  reality. 
The  hero  is  not  he  who  conquers  on  the  field  of  battle,  nor 
he  who  leads  men  to  political  victories,  nor  one  who  is  a  cap- 
tain of  industry;  but  he  who  accepts  the  intellect  and  knowl- 
edge bequeathed  to  him  by  the  race,  searches  deep"  for  the 
fundamental  nature  of  things  and  finds  it,  and  has  the  cour- 
age to  publish  his  work  to  the  world,  and  never  ceases  trying 
to  apply  his  thought  to  the  human  situation  so  that  in  time 
the  race  may  be  perfectly  adjusted  to  its  environment,  and 
the  universal  process  of  adjusting  radiant,  external  energy  to 
gravitant,  internal  energy  be  accomplished  in  the  highest 
organization  of  matter  possible,  the  human  race  as  a  social 
organism,  and  the  greatest  possible  economy  of  energy 
thereby  be  attained. 


CHAPTER   VI 

ANIMAL   MECHANICS 
I. 

In  the  mechanics  of  living  organisms  it  will  be  seen  that 
action  and  reaction  are  not  equal  and  opposite,  but  that  an 
external  energy  may  set  up  in  a  living  body  motions  vastly 
different  from  itself,  and  the  energy  of  the  body  is  not  dissi- 
pated blindly,  determined  only  by  the  contending  energies, 
but  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance,  conserving  the  life 
of  the  living  body  or  its  species  determined  by  ideas,  and 
not  all  at  once,  but  just  the  amount  the  animal  sees  fit  to 
use,  determined  by  the  ideas  and  concepts  of  the  individual 
and  the  species.  The  animal  organism  stores  the  energies  of 
nature  to  be  used  and  dissipated  as  needed.  The  line  of 
expenditure  is  not  that  of  the  least  resistance  of  one  expe- 
rience (present  stimuli),  but  a  line  established  by  the 
coalescing  of  the  lines  of  all  the  experience,  ideas,  concepts, 
that  the  animal  has  had  in  its  life  or  inherited  from  its 
ancestors.  The  internal  energy  is  not  dissipated  blindly  by 
external  energies,  but  the  residua  of  various  external  ener- 
gies are  registered  in  the  organism  and  act  as  lines  of  the 
least  resistance  for  the  expenditure  of  energy  for  the  animal 
or  its  species.  The  mechanism  for  the  expenditure  of  an 
animal's  energy  is  the  nervous  system  organized  with  its  mus- 
cular system.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  living  body  can 
receive  impressions  from  external  energies  and  store  them  in 
its  body  to  be  used  as  channels  for  expending  its  internal 
energies  to  its  own  and  its  species'  advantage,  in  a  sense  it 
can  originate  actions.  Living  organisms  are  not  beaten  pell- 
mell  about  in  nature,  but  dodge  in  and  out  amongst  the 

62 


ANIMAL  MECHANICS  63 

interacting  bodies  and  ultimately  direct  the  energies  of 
external  nature  to  their  own  advantage.  From  their  small 
beginning  in  protoplasm,  through  countless  ages  of  time  and 
infinite  number  of  forms,  the  body  and  mind  of  man  have 
been  developed. 

The  incipient  motions  initiated  in  protoplasmic  com- 
pounds by  the  action  of  some  external  stimulus  upon  it  is 
the  beginning  of  the  organization  of  the  mechanical  powers, 
the  lever,  the  balance,  the  wheel  and  axle,  the  pulley,  the 
inclined  plane,  the  screw  and  the  wedge,  so  highly  organized 
in  the  body  of  man,  making  him,  through  the  development 
of  the  nervous,  muscular  and  osseous  systems,  capable  of 
actions  outside  the  domain  of  the  three  laws  of  motion  and 
putting  him  under  the  control  of  a  higher  mechanical  law, 
that  of  action  controlled  by  ideas  and  morality.  We  can 
trace  back  in  the  history  of  creation  the  mechanical  develop- 
ment of  all  of  the  tissues  of  the  animal  organism,  and  can 
see  that  the  action  and  interaction  of  external  energies  upon 
living  compounds  resulted  in  developing  all  of  the  mechani- 
cal powers  constituting  the  utility  and  beauty  of  the  human 
organism. 

II. 

The  skeleton  of  animals  is  due  to  pressure  in  living, 
moving  animal  tissue.  In  the  beginning,  before  any  animal 
had  developed  any  skeleton  or  bony  framework  whatever, 
some  animal,  worm-shaped,  by  forcing  itself  to  perform 
linear  movements,  after  infinite  trials,  developed  vertebrae 
by  the  pressure  of  its  body  due  to  external  resistance.  In 
the  case  of  insects,  the  pressure  being  different,  the  bony 
skeleton  is  different.  The  same  is  true  of  other  forms  of  ani- 
mal life.  After  infinite  trials  nature  has  developed  some  five 
types  of  life,  and  this  no  doubt  exhausts  the  possibilities  of 
animal  tissue  under  mechanical  pressure  here  on  earth.  If 
there  were  other  types  they  failed  to  adapt  themselves  to  the 
environment  in  the  struggle  for  existence  and  became  extinct. 


64         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

It  is  not  planned  that  all  of  the  higher  animals  shall  have 
backbones,  but  it  is  due  to  mechanical  pressure  in  living 
organisms  that  made  certain  persistent  motions  in  moving 
from  place  to  place  in  response  to  certain  external  stimuli.* 

The  rest  of  the  skeleton  of  animals  developed  from 
mechanical  necessity — the  pseudo-leg  being  produced  by 
parts  of  tissue  compelled  by  external  pressure  to  perform 
the  functions  of  a  leg,  the  pseudo-leg  begetting  the  true  leg 
through  the  laws  of  repetition  and  the  laws  of  natural  selec- 
tion. We  can  trace  animals  back  to  where  the  ankle  joint 
was  so  imperfect  that  it  could  scarcely  be  called  one  at  all, 
and  then  trace  its  development  up  to  its  perfection  in  man, 
and  know  that  the  evolution  has  been  due  to  mechanical 
pressure  acting  under  the  laws  of  natural  selection  and  the 
laws  of  repetition.! 

In  the  case  of  some  kind  of  animals  the  upper  extremities 
coming  in  contact  with  the  atmosphere,  instead  of  the  solid 
earth,  developed  into  wings,  not  only  in  one  kind  of  animal, 
but  in  many,  as  insects,  reptiles,  birds,  mammals.  In  other 
kind  of  animals  the  same  extremities,  in  their  habitual 
resistance,  meeting  with  water,  developed  into  fins,  as  in  fish 
and  mammals.  The  mechanical  pressure  being  different, 
the  organ  is  different.  In  some  cases,  as  in  whales  and  cer- 
tain snakes,  extremities  in  the  form  of  legs,  after  they  once 

*  "  If  we  now  imagine  that  either  the  integuments,  or  anaxial  rod,  of  a  worm- 
like  animal  has  become  the  seat  of  a  calcareous  or  chltinous  deposit,  it  is  evident 
that  the  movements  of  the  animal  in  swimming  or  creeping  must  have  inter- 
rupted the  deposit  at  definite  points  of  its  length.  The  lateral  flexure  of  the 
body  would  be  restricted  to  certain  points,  and  the  intervening  spaces  would 
become  the  seat  of  the  deposit.  At  the  lines  of  interruption  joints  would  be 
formed,  and  if  the  movements  were  habitually  symmetrical,  these  interruptions 
would  be  equidistant.  In  this  way  the  well-known  segmentation  of  the  external 
skeleton  of  Arthropoda,  and  the  internal  skeletons  of  Vertebrata  would  be 
formed."— Primary  Factors  of  Organic  Evolution,  pp.  368-9,  PBOF.  E.  D.  COPB. 

t "  The  demonstration  of  the  mechanical  origin  of  a  given  peculiarity,  how- 
ever, by  no  means  precludes  that  such  peculiarity  may  not  be  an  inheritance 
from  or  reversion  to  pithecoid  ancestors.  It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that 
all  of  the  form  characters  of  the  vertebrate  skeleton,  and  for  that  matter,  of  the 
hard  parts  of  all  animals,  have  been  produced  by  muscular  pressure  and  con- 
tractions, and  the  frictions,  strains,  and  impacts  due  to  these."— Ibid.,  p.  467. 


ANIMAL  MECHANICS  65 

had  been  developed,  were  completely  changed  by  the  adop- 
tion of  a  new  form  of  mechanical  pressure.  "What  an  animal's 
form  is  depends  upon  its  physical  surroundings  and  the  kind 
of  habitual  movements  it  makes  in  its  daily  life. 

But  it  is  not  only  the  bony  skeleton  that  is  developed  by 
mechanical  pressure.  The  same  is  true  of  the  circulatory 
system  in  animals.  If  the  heart  is  a  pump,  it  is  because  it 
made  itself  one,  following  the  law  of  natural  selection  and  the 
laws  of  repetition  under  mechanical  pressure.  The  valves  in 
the  veins  are  not  due  to  design,  but  to  the  mechanical  neces- 
sity of  liquids  flowing  under  rhythmic  pressure  in  closed 
tubes  which  change  as  the  pressure  is  applied.  The 
embryology  of  animals  is  the  geological  strata  of  the  soft 
tissues  of  animals,  and  it  is  to  its  study  that  we  need  look  for 
missing  links. 

Everything  goes  to  show  that  animals  are  a  product  of 
nature  dne  to  mechanical  laws.  The  development  of  the 
mind  and  the  motor  apparatus  of  animals  go  hand  in  hand — 
the  one  always  being  an  accompaniment  of  the  other.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  alimentary  system.  Man  could  not  have 
his  present  highly  developed  nervous  system  but  for  his  per- 
fect alimentary  and  circulatory  systems. 

It  is  not  capriciousness  that  causes  every  animal  that  lives 
in  the  water  and  passes  rapidly  through  it  to  be  serpent-  or 
fish-shaped,  or  that  the  bottom  of  boats  are  so;  but  that  any 
body  passing  rapidly  through  water  is  mechanically  com- 
pelled to  take  that  shape.  The  whale,  a  very  fish-shaped 
animal,  was  once  a  quadruped,  but  its  life  in  the  ocean,  after 
countless  ages,  changed  its  complete  appearance  and  none 
but  a  scientist  would  take  it  to  be  a  mammal.  Animals  do 
not  have  legs,  fins  and  wings  because  walking,  running  and 
swimming  are  the  best  methods  of  movement,  for  they  are 
not,  wheeling  being  much  better.  But  nature  is  incapable 
of  making  wheels  directly  for  locomotion,  only  indirectly 
through  man  did  it  accomplish  movement  by  means  of  the 


66         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

wheel  and  axle,  because  limited  by  mechanical  necessity, 
under  the  three  laws  of  motion,  it  is  an  impossibility. 
According  to  mechanical  laws  creeping,  swimming,  walking, 
running,  flying  are  the  only  ways  animals  can  move.  If  an 
animal  meets  with  an  obstruction  in  its  efforts  at  locomotion, 
the  opposition  it  meets  with  will  react  upon  the  animal  and 
determine  its  method  of  movement,  causing  it  to  fly,  walk, 
run  or  swim  of  dire  physical  necessity. 

III. 

The  position  of  cities  is  determined  by  mechanical  laws. 
All  great  cities  are  situated  at  centers  of  trade — the  lines 
of  the  least  resistance  for  the  distribution  of  the  prod- 
ucts of  the  race.  Formerly  they  were  on  rivers,  owing  to 
rivers  being  the  line  of  travel,  but  to-day  they  are  on  rail- 
ways, the  easiest  line  of  travel  between  two  points.  If  the 
line  of  trade  changes  the  cities  cease  to  exist.  The  great 
cities  of  Babylon,  Nineveh  and  Carthage  are  no  more.  It  is 
the  mechanical  flow  of  human  property  that  determines  the 
location  of  cities,  modified  by  the  flow  of  human  energy  in 
the  protection  of  property  in  war  with  other  nations,  where 
cities  are  built  for  defensive  purposes.  But  such  motives  in 
the  building  of  cities  is  becoming  a  thing  of  the  dark  past, 
and  to-day  there  is  a  tendency  to  let  fine  art  determine  their 
location,  as  Washington  City  in  the  United  States,  for 
example. 

All  great  nations  are  situated  in  the  temperate  zone  from 
mechanical  principles,  because  the  exertions  necessary  to 
gain  a  living  in  the  temperate  zone  result  in  the  develop- 
ment of  great  nations.  All  torrid  zone  people  are  dwarfed 
in  development,  owing  to  nature's  being  too  kind  to  them; 
while  the  people  of  the  frigid  zones  are  dwarfed  by  nature's 
being  too  cruel  to  them.  In  the  temperate  zone  there  is 
enough  severity  to  stimulate  great  activity,  and  not  too  much 
to  produce  lassitude.  The  mechanical  effect  of  climate  and 


ANIMAL   MECHANICS  67 

soil  upon  peoples  has  been  observed  by  historians  before,  but 
they  have  not  seen  fit  to  carry  the  facts  to  their  logical  con- 
clusion. In  all  the  efforts  at  a  mechanical  explanation  of 
things  heretofore  philosophers  have  been  fragmentary. 

The  color  of  the  clothes  we  wear,  the  kind  of  food  we  eat, 
are  determined  by  mechanical  laws.  In  the  torrid  zone,  and 
daring  the  summer  in  the  temperate  zones,  we  wear  white 
clothing,  because  it  radiates  the  heat  more  readily.  In  the 
winter  in  the  temperate  zones  and  in  the  frigid  zones  we 
wear  dark-colored  clothing,  because  it  does  not  radiate  heat 
so  readily.  In  the  frigid  zones  fats  are  the  chief  food ;  in 
the  temperate  zones,  meats;  in  the  torrid  zones,  fruits, 
depending  upon  the  quantity  of  animal  heat  necessary  for 
one  to  exist.  It  is  all  due  to  mechanical  laws.  It  is  a  mat- 
ter of  the  expenditure  of  energy. 

If  we  were  wise  enough  we  could  reduce  all  civilization  to 
mechanical  laws  and  show  that  the  desires  of  men  can  be 
measured  and  calculated  upon,  that  instinct  acts  as  a  natural 
force,  that  human  emotions  are  energies  that  follow  natural 
laws,  that  reason  itself  is  but  a  method  of  nature  to  save 
energy,  that  morality  is  but  the  most  economical  channel  for 
the  expenditure  of  energy  yet  discovered  by  the  race. 

IV. 

There  has  resulted  from  the  first  origination  of  pro- 
toplasm two  forms  of  development — physical  and  mental. 
The  more  varied  an  animal's  mental  development,  the  more 
varied  its  physical  development,  and  vice  versa.  They 
always  go  hand  in  hand  and  both  physical  and  mental 
development  reach  their  highest  perfection  in  man.  "What 
nature  can  do  with  different  forms  of  life,  under  different 
condition's,  is  shown  in  the  five  types  of  life  here  on  earth. 
The  elements  of  nature,  after  infinite  trials,  first  along  this 
line,  creating  in  one  geological  age  a  world  of  plants  that 
exhausted  the  superabundant  amount  of  carbon  dioxide  of 


68        THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

the  primitive  atmosphere— to  be  followed  by  another  geo- 
logical age,  in  which  animals  seem  to  try  to  reach  economy  in 
the  expenditure  of  energy  through  the  enormity  of  their  size — 
to  be  followed  by  new  departures  along  different  lines,  until 
finally  after  ages  of  the  struggle  for  existence  and  repetition 
after  repetition,  nature  struck  upon  the  method  of  using  the 
energies  of  nature  through  mind,  and  man  was  developed, 
seemingly  to  combine  in  his  physical  makeup  the  merit  of  all 
of  the  other  animals  with  defects  peculiarly  his  own.  If  one 
looks  at  the  skeleton  of  primitive  animals,  one  will  notice 
that  there  is  a  gradual  development  of  brain  capacity  dis- 
played along  the  lines  of  all  animal  development,  and  most 
along  that  of  human  development.  That  everything  is  a 
result  of  mechanical  energy  is  a  conception  the  world  is 
gradually  coming  to,  no  matter  how  unpleasant  or  how 
unwonted  it  may  be.  To  prove  the  body  of  man  a  result  of 
mechanical  laws  is  no  doubt  difficult ;  to  prove  the  mind  a 
result  of  mechanical  laws  has  been  deemed  heretofore  an 
impossibility.  To  prove  that  our  social  aggregation  follows 
mechanical  laws  may  be  done;  but  to  prove  that  morality  is 
controlled  by  the  same  laws  to  most  persons  will  be  deemed 
a  shocking  absurdity.  But  the  facts  are  before  us.  All  we 
have  to  do  is  to  interpret  them.  We  know  that  the  animal 
body  has  been  originated  and  with  it  the  human  mind ;  that 
our  social  aggregations  began  within  historic  times;  that 
principles  of  morals,  deemed  cardinal  to-day,  were  not 
dreamed  of  in  the  days  of  Aristotle ;  that  all  of  this  progress 
is  due  to  the  factors  and  energies  at  work  in  nature  and 
society,  and,  with  the  key  of  present  knowledge,  we  can 
readily  determine  them. 

V. 

The  law  of  natural  selection  and  the  laws  of  repetition 
are  the  most  potent  factors  in  understanding  nature,  life, 
mind  and  society.  Internal  repetition  as  heredity  always 
reproduces  the  individual  animal  form  as  nearly  as  possible 


ANIMAL  MECHANICS  69 

like  the  parent  form,  and,  before  sex  was  developed,  it  was 
almost  identical  with  it.  But  the  law  of  internal  repe- 
tition has  always  been  kept  from  repeating  the  animal  form 
exactly  by  the  law  of  external  repetition,  which  repeats 
in  the  animal  all  the  energies  surrounding  it,  producing 
in  it  variations  and  adapting  it  to  its  environment.  In- 
ternal repetition  is  not  enough  to  insure  the  perpetuation 
and  development  of  life,  for  the  environment  changes ;  so 
that  form  of  life  which,  in  repeating  itself,  allows  external 
energies  to  be  repeated  and  registered  in  it,  to  vary  it,  and 
thus,  through  natural  selection,  to  adapt  it  to  its  environ- 
ment, stands  a  greater  chance  of  perpetuation  and  devel- 
opment than  one  which  only  repeats  itself — a  chemical 
compound,  for  example.  This  ability  to  adapt  itself  to  the 
environment  becomes  the  chief  characteristic  of  living  matter. 
The  great  problem  of  animal  life  has  been  that  of  adapta- 
tion and  not  heredity.  The  problem  of  adaptation  has  been 
solved  by  variation,  and  whatever  has  increased  variation 
has  always  been  taken  advantage  of  by  organic  life  in  its 
long  history.* 

Variation  in  the  evolution  of  life  is  primarily  secured  by 
death.  By  making  life  a  cycle,  a  process,  self-initiated,  the 
elements  and  energies  of  nature  originated  a  compound  that 
was  not  dependent  upon  accidents  of  the  environment  for  its 
originations,  as  are  pure  chemical  compounds,  but  only 
dependent  upon  the  environment  for  its  existence.  Death 
and  reproduction  are  the  primal  factors  in  the  variations  of 
animals.  It  is  the  only  way  energy  can  be  expended  to 
enable  an  organism  here  on  earth  to  adapt  itself  to  a  con- 

*"  The  whole  organism  molecularly  considered,  is  as' fixed  and  immutable, 
within  certain  variable  limits,  as  a  crystal.  *  *  *  In  the  animal  organism  the 
molecules  are  mobile  within  limits;  in  the  crystal  they  are  fixed.  Never- 
theless, we  may  justly  regard  an  organism  as  developing  after  the  manner  of 
crystals,  but  with  the  power  of  very  gradually  varying  their  forms  by  means  of 
variation  in  structure,  forms  and  powers  of  their  constituent  molecules,  in  the 
course  of  many  generations  of  individuals."— Biological  Lectures,  1894,  Marine 
Biological  Laboratory,  pp.  48-9,  by  PROF.  JOHN  A.  RYDEB. 


70         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

stantly  changing  environment;  for  immortality  implies  a 
permanently  adjusted  relation  between  organism  and 
environment;  or  an  environment  that  never  changes  and  a 
permanently  adjusted  organism  to  it.  Neither  of  these  sup- 
positions have  happened  here  on  earth,  although  it  is  the 
goal  of  social  evolution  to  reach  an  adjustment  with  the 
environment  that  will  be  an  exact  correlation  to  it  in  all  of 
its  changes  throughout  eternity.  It  was  either  death  and 
reproduction  to  primitive  organisms  or  else  extinction  for- 
ever; and  life  adopted  death  in  order  that  it  might  live  and 
reproduce  and  reach  the  glorious  development  we  see  to-day. 
There  was  nothing  mysterious  about  this.  It  is  probable 
that  originally  death  resulted  to  all  the  primitive  organic 
compounds  the  same  as  to  chemical  compounds;  but  as  the 
dead  bodies  of  the  organisms  were  the  constituents  of  new 
organisms,  it  is  probable  that  the  constituents  immediately 
entered  into  the  new  compounds,  which  is  not  death,  but 
spontaneous  generation;  then  followed  the  union  of  effete 
organisms  upon  the  verge  of  death,  and  an  incipient  form  of 
sexual  reproduction  was  initiated;  and  death  made  only  a 
relative  phenomenon,  and  the  permanent  life  of  the  race 
secured.  At  each  reproduction  of  an  animal  the  internal  law 
of  repetition  repeated  all  the  changes  that  the  external  law 
of  repetition  had  registered  in  it,  and  thus  the  adjustment  of 
one  generation  was  handed  on  to  the  next,  and  the  simple 
cycle  of  life  became  the  grand  evolution  of  the  race. 

VI. 

The  second  variation  in  the  evolution  of  life,  by  fur- 
nishing a  greater  variety  of  experience  for  variation,  is 
secured  by  the  division  of  labor  introduced  by  plants  and 
animals.  The  first  great  division  of  labor  upon  earth  was 
that  of  plants  and  animals;  the  plant,  sacrificing  a  wide, 
deep,  high  life  for  certain  existence,  lived  upon  the  elements 
ever  at  hand,  organizing  them  into  compounds  to  be  used 


ANIMAL  MECHANICS  71 

by  animals  as  food;  animals,  performing  a  fortuitous  but 
grand  career,  cut  loose  from  the  soil  and  entered  upon  a 
great  life  of  freedom.  Plants  did  the  work  that  could  only 
be  done  by  being  stationary;  animals  did  the  work  that  could 
only  be  done  by  being  active.  These  two  forms  of  life  began 
supplementing  each  other  by  a  division  of  labor  in  building 
compounds  to  be  used  by  each  other,  the  plants  acting  as 
food  for  animals,  and  animals  and  their  products  acting  as 
food  for  plants.  They  utilized  each  other's  peculiar  nature 
and  caused  the  differentiation  to  become  wider  and  more 
pronounced ;  animals  thereby  reaching  a  higher,  deeper  and 
more  extensive  development  by  being  relieved  of  the 
drudgery  of  building  foods  from  inorganic  compounds,  and 
by  having  a  world-wide  habitat,  full  of  varied  experience  with 
the  various  stimuli  of  nature  to  produce  in  them  the  thou- 
sands of  variations  impossible  to  the  immobile  and  sessile 
plant;  and  plants,  having  a  certain  existence  guaranteed 
them  for  this  sacrifice,  became  the  inferior  organisms  we  see 
to-day. 

The  microscopic  speck  of  protoplasm  that  became  sessile 
was  acted  upon  by  mechanical  energies  which,  through  the 
laws  of  internal  and  external  repetition,  made  it  a  plant. 
The  microscopic  speck  of  protoplasm  which  floated  free  in 
the  primal  ocean  was  acted  upon  by  mechanical  energies, 
which  in  time,  through  the  laws  of  internal  and  extern?! 
repetition  and  the  law  of  natural  selection,  made  it  an 
animal. 

Plants  and  animals  have  their  respective  kinds  of  life 
determined  for  them  exclusively  by  mechanical  laws. 
Plants  in  general  have  their  food  ever  at  hand  without  any 
exertion  on  their  part.  They  are  sessile,  live  a  narrow,  sure 
existence  and  reach  only  a  small  degree  of  life.  In  fact, 
plants  do  not  live  at  all;  they  simply  exist.  Animals  gener- 
ally are  compelled  to  hunt  for  their  food.  They  must  move 
about,  and  as  a  result,  organs  of  locomotion  are  produced 


72         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

and  mind  is  developed  to  assist  them  in  moving,  to  avoid 
injuries  and  to  seek  benefits.  If  an  animal  had  no  better 
means  of  knowing  the  environment  than  a  plant,  yet  com- 
pelled to  move  about  in  it  in  order  to  secure  its  food,  it 
would  soon  rush  into  some  danger,  and  be  destroyed.  It  is 
all  due  to  mechanical  necessity  of  animals  that  they  are  as 
they  are.  Were  animals  provided  with  food  as  plants  are  or 
as  animals  are  with  air,  they  would  cease  to  be  animals  and 
become  plants.  This  is  proved  by  parasitism.  It  is  the 
precariousness  of  the  animal  situation  here  on  earth  that  has 
made  animals  what  they  are.  It  is  the  necessary  activity 
that  animals  are  subjected  to  which  has  produced  the  wonder- 
ful animal  organism,  the  mysterious  human  mind,  and  the 
marvelous  thing  called  society  or  civilization.  Mechanical 
necessity  determines  everything ;  but  it  is  so  constant  that 
we  do  not  notice  it. 

VII. 

The  third  great  division  of  labor,  taken  advantage  of 
by  life  in  order  to  increase  its  experience  with  nature,  and 
thus  become  capable  of  greater  and  greater  variations,  is  that 
of  sex.  Before  the  origination  of  sex,  the  animal  repro- 
duced itself  subject  only  to  whatever  variation  the  external 
energies  of  nature  produced  in  it.  But  with  the  origination 
of  sex,  the  powers  of  variation  of  the  offspring  were  doubled, 
and  its  power  of  adaptation  to  the  environment  increased 
twofold,  because  it  received  the  experience  of  both  of  its 
parents.  Sexual  reproduction  assists  in  a  greater  differentia- 
tion of  organisms,  and  leads  to  wider  experience,  causing  the 
organism  to  come  under  the  influence  of  more  energies, 
which  result  in  greater  variation  of  animals,  which  in  turn, 
causes  a  more  perfect  adaptation  to  the  environment.  In 
sexless  animals  the  offspring  is  almost  an  exact  reproduction 
of  the  parent.  When  the  original  protoplasmic  cell  began 
uniting  with  another  similar  cell  (a  kind  of  nutrition),  the 
united  cells  produced  a  greater  variety  in  cells  than  those  not 


AXIMAL  MECHAXICS  73 

having  united,  and  thus  had  a  better  opportunity  for  adapta- 
tion to  the  environment.  The  registered  energies  of  the 
environment  in  each  cell  were  somewhat  different,  and  as  it 
is  through  these  registrations  that  variations  in  organisms 
are  secured,  it  stands  to  reason  that  if  two  protoplasmic 
cells  were  to  unite  their  resulting  offspring  would  have  the 
experience  of  both  of  them,  hence  the  ability  of  both  to  vary 
and  thus  be  better  able  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  environ- 
ment, and,  in  the  struggle  for  existence  amongst  organisms, 
they  would  survive,  while  asexual  organisms  would  become 
extinct.  It  is  from  this  form  of  nutrition  that  sex  began. 
As  sexuality  increased,  a  greater  variety  of  animals  and 
plants  was  developed,  and  a  more  perfect  adaptation  to  the 
environment  secured ;  hence  sexual  plants  and  animals  were 
the  ones  that  lived  and  perpetuated  themselves,  according  to 
the  law  of  natural  selection  and  the  laws  of  repetition,  and  a 
more  perfect  economy  of  energy  was  secured. 

Self-reproduction  was  the  most  natural,  but  it  could  not 
secure  as  great  a  variety  of  experience  for  the  offspring  as 
sexual  reproduction ;  hence  plants  and  animals  that  repro- 
duced sexually  were  able  to  live  through  the  struggle  for 
existence  and  the  law  of  repetition  perpetuated  their  merits ; 
and  the  same  external  energy  that  gave  rise  to  the  variation 
of  sex  caused  it  to  become  permanent  and  to  be  one  of  the 
chief  factors  in  the  perfection  of  the  economic  dissipation  of 
energy,  which  is  the  function  of  the  universal  process  we  see 
going  on  in  life  and  society. 

The  division  of  labor  of  the  sexes  is  as  sharply  defined  as 
that  of  plants  and  animals;  they  cannot  interchange  func- 
tions and  they  supplement  each  other  as  closely  and  as  fully. 
The  experiences  of  the  sexes  being  different  the  offspring 
gets  both  aspects  of  life  (the  environment),  yet  is  able  to 
perform  but  one  function,  nevertheless,  i^  receives  a  double 
power  of  variation  to  adapt  itself  to  the  environment.  Sex 
is  due  to  mechanical  laws  in  nature  in  the  expenditure  of 


74         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

energy,  securing  a  greater  economy  by  a  division  of  labor, 
and  accomplishes  the  end  of  adapting  plants  and  animals  to 
their  environment;  the  differentiation  of  plants  and  animals 
being  a  similar  division  of  labor,  a  similar  expenditure  of 
energy,  with  a  similar  function.  Each  is  determined  by  the 
environment  and  can  be  explained  only  upon  mechanical 

principles. 

VIII. 

There  is  yet  another  division  of  labor  in  nature,  that 
division  of  labor  performed  by  the  powers  of  order  and  the 
powers  of  progress.  I  do  not  mean  that  division  of  labor 
noted  in  economics,  which  gave  origin  to  the  term  division 
of  labor,  but  that  division  of  social  labor  which  has  for  its 
function  a  greater  variety  of  experience  in  the  social  environ- 
ment and  a  consequent  greater  power  of  evolution.  It 
seems  that  social  organizations  are  composed  of  two  kinds  of 
people,  the  conservative  and  the  radical;  those  who  work 
for  order  and  those  who  work  for  progress.  If  these  two 
kinds  of  social  units  were  given  names  analogous  to  biologi- 
cal creations,  those  who  work  for  order  would  be  the  female 
element  of  society,  while  those  who  work  for  progress  would 
be  the  male.  There  is  no  doubt  but  a  proper  coalescing  of 
these  two  kinds  of  social  units  would  produce  a  more 
healthful  form  of  society  than  if  but  one  element  were  act- 
ing in  determining  the  future  of  society.  Throughout  his- 
tory whenever  the  progressive  elements  of  nations  have  been 
suppressed,they  have  become  extinct,  incapable  of  adapting 
themselves  to  their  environment,  incapable  of  reproduction 
or  perpetuation.  And  at  all  times  in  history  whenever  the 
progressive  element  became  too  predominant,  as  in  the 
French  Revolution,  it  produced  varieties  in  society  that 
could  not  exist,  and  resulted  in  deterioration  at  once.  A 
proper  coordination  of  these  two  elements  of  society  has 
always  resulted  in  a  healthful  social  organization.  But  a 
full  and  complete  discussion  of  this  aspect  of  the  me- 


ANIMAL  MECHANICS  75 

chanical   principles  of  society  is  reserved  for  subsequent 
chapters. 

Nothing  but  preconceived  notions  could  have  kept  the 
acute  minds  of  the  nineteenth  century  from  perceiving  that 
the  principles  of  mechanics  extend,  not  only  to  animal  and 
plant  life,  but  also  to  society.  Some  ideas  act  as  a  dam  to 
the  further  flow  of  thought.  The  intellectual  life  of  some 
persons  is  a  stagnant  pond  of  conservatism.  They  sail 
around  and  around  their  one-idea  world  and  make  believe 
their  little  life  is  the  universe,  and  their  circuitous  journey- 
ings  is  progress  to  the  goal  of  perfection.  No  notion  has 
ever  been  so  fertile  in  such  a  damming  up  of  thought  as  that 
nature  is  not  one  continuous  whole,  and  that  natural  laws 
do  not  hold  good  throughout  nature,  life,  mind  and  society. 


CHAPTEE  VII 

BEALISM    AND    IDEALISM 
I. 

Heretofore  in  the  explanations  of  life  and  mind  the 
investigator  has  involved  himself  in  a  maze  of  metaphysical 
perplexities,  so  that  not  one  metaphysician  in  a  dozen  can 
understand  another,  and  the  common  man  never  makes  the 
attempt  to  understand  any  of  them.  Not  being  satisfied 
with  naturalistic  answers  to  their  problems,  metaphysicians 
have  disdained  naturalistic  solutions,  have  sought  to  solve 
the  problems  of  existence  and  mind  by  transcendental  prin- 
ciples, instead  of  the  simple  facts  about  us.  Rather  than 
commence  with  life  and  mind  in  their  incipient  forms,  they 
assume  a  perfect  being  and  a  perfect  mind,  and  deduce  the 
universe  from  them.  The  best  way  to  understand  anything, 
and  the  only  way  to  understand  the  mind,  is  to  seek  out  its 
factors  and  trace  the  process  of  its  evolution  up  to  the 
human  mind  to-day. 

The  nature  of  the  relation  existing  between  mind  and 
matter  is  the  question  involved  in  the  philosophy  of  ideal- 
ism and  realism.  Idealism  is  another  one  of  those  thought 
damming  theories  of  things  which  must  be  gotten  rid  of  before 
a  naturalistic  theory  of  life  and  mind  can  be  originated. 
The  likeness  between  mind  and  nature  does  not  come  from 
nature's  having  been  created  by  mind,  but  from  mind's  hav- 
ing been  originated  by  nature.  Arthur  Schopenhauer  in  his 
great  work,  The  World  as  Will  and  Idea,  says:  "The  world 
is  my  idea."  This  is  true,  yet  idealism  is  not  the  whole 
truth;  for  the  world's  being  one's  idea  does  not  preclude 
other  knowledge  when  the  proposition  is  fully  understood. 

76 


REALISM   AND   IDEALISM  77 

It  is  but  half  the  truth.  Two  different  manifestations  of 
original  energy  constitute  nature,  and  one  is  as  knowable  as 
the  other.  While  they  are  both  contained  in  the  proposi- 
tion, "The  world  is  my  idea,"  yet  the  author  only  meant  to 
convey  the  idea  that  all  we  can  know  is  ideas.  In  the 
proposition  the  world  is  my  idea  the  word  "world"  and  the 
pronoun  "my "stand  for  the  developed  forms  of  the  two  prim- 
itive energies  of  nature,  radiant  energies  and  gravitant  ener- 
gies. The  facts  can  best  be  understood  by  analysis.  Nature 
consists  of  the  gravitant  energies  of  matter  and  the  radiant 
energies  constituting  the  conditions  of  matter.  The  gravi- 
tant energies  in  their  developed  form  constitute  my  ego, 
"my,"  in  the  proposition  given;  the  radiant  energies  in 
their  developed  forms  constitute  my  ideas,  the  word 
"world"  being  one  of  them.  The  word  "my"  is  my  ego 
which  consists  of  the  gravitant  energies  of  nature  organized 
in  my  body.  The  word  "world"  is  an  idea,  the  idea  being 
fche  external  energies  of  light,  heat,  mechanical  energies  and 
so  forth  registered  in  my  brain. 

An  idea  is  but  a  representation  of  some  object  in  the 
world,  and  by  numerous  experiences  one  acquires  an  idea  of 
the  world  as  a  whole;  and  so  it  is  true  that  "the  world  is  my 
idea,"  but  it  is  also  true  that  my  idea  of  the  world  is  only  a 
representation  of  the  energies  constituting  the  conditions  of 
external  nature  that  are  identical  with  my  idea  of  it,  and  to 
know  one  is  to  know  the  other.  The  world  is  my  idea,  and 
my  idea  is  identical  with  the  energies  of  the  world  producing 
it.  Hence  to  know  an  idea  is  to  know  the  energy  producing 
it.  The  truth  about  idealism  and  realism  is  that  all  we  can 
know  is  ideas,  yet  ideas  are  identical  with  the  energies  pro- 
ducing them :  hence  idealism  and  realism  are  one  and  the 
same  thing  looked  at  from  different  points  of  view.  Ideal- 
ism begins  with  mind  and  explains  nature;  realism  begins 
with  nature  and  explains  mind. 

The  "my"  in  Schopenhauer's  proposition  consists  of  the 


78         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

organized  energies  constituting  matter,  which  have  been 
produced  by  the  internal  energies  of  matter  in  an  organism, 
registering  themselves  in  an  organism,  and  thus  becoming  a 
kind  of  sense  whereby  another  impression  of  the  same 
internal  energies  may  be  received  and  classified.  The  energies 
constituting  matter,  under  favorable  external  conditions, 
combine,  recombine,  until  finally  an  organism  is  developed 
composed  of  many  different  kinds  of  organic  tissues  and  so 
constituted  that  the  energies  of  matter  in  one  part  of  the 
organism  can  register  themselves  in  another  part.  The 
"my"  consists  of  the  registered  energies  of  matter  in  an 
organism  cognizing  a  new  impression  of  the  energy  of  the 
organism,  which  is  the  original  energy  of  matter.  Man's 
body  manifests  the  energy  of  matter;  his  nervous  system 
records  them.  The  ego  is  the  registered  impressions  of  the 
energies  of  matter  constituting  one's  self,  cognizing  a  new 
impression  of  self. 

It  is  in  this  way  that  we  know  what  the  energies  of  matter 
consist  of.  The  chemism  of  matter  in  us  is  will,  desire, 
love,  religion.  It  is  through  ideas  that  we  know  the  ener- 
gies of  nature,  the  conditions  of  matter,  and  by  self-con- 
sciousness we  know  the  energies  of  matter  itself.  So  the 
proposition  of  Schopenhauer  only  speaks  half  the  truth: 
"The  world  is  my  idea",  but  I  know  what  I  myself  am  by 
identifying  the  energies  constituting  my  ego  as  being 
identical  with  the  gravitant  energies  of  matter,  so  I  know 
not  only  radiant  energies  and  their  products  (ideas),  but 
gravitant  energies  and  their  product  (my  ego). 

The  idea  "world"  could  not  exist  except  for  the  energies 
constituting  matter,  the  animal  organism  their  organized 
form,  in  which  it  is  a  residuum.  The  energies  constituting 
matter  and  the  energies  constituting  its  conditions  (internal 
and  external  energies)  are  contemporaneous:  hence  both 
idealism  and  realism  are  primary  realities,  realism  being  the 
energies  of  matter,  idealism  being  the  energies  constituting 


REALISM   AND   IDEALISM  70 

its  conditions;  for  what  iu  the  inorganic  world  is  called  a 
condition  of  matter,  in  the  organic,  mental  world  is  called 
an  idea. 

II. 

The  dispute  between  idealists  and  realists  consists  in 
realists  denying  that  ideas  are  all  we  know  and  can  know, 
and  insisting  upon  the  fact  that  the  energies  of  ideas  are 
identical  with  the  energies  of  nature  producing  them.  If 
we  can  know  only  ideas,  then  we  cannot  know  them ;  for 
knowing  a  thing  is  seeing  it  under  two  forms  and  recognizing 
that  it  is  the  same  thing.  Because  our  minds  consist  of 
internal  and  external  energies  organized  into  sense,  emotions 
and  ideas,  the  idealist  says  that  the  contents  of  our  minds  is 
all  we  can  know  and  that  nature  is  something  totally  differ- 
ent from  our  knowledge  of  it.  And  this  theory,  with  no 
proof  whatever  other  than  mere  assertion,  is  believed  by 
nearly  all,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  traditional  theory  of 
the  mind  conceives  the  mind  so  transceudentally  that  a  nat- 
ural explanation  of  it  is  not  thought  of.  No  supposition 
is  more  probable  than  that  the  intellect  is  but  residua  of  the 
external  energies  of  nature ;  as  the  emotions  are  but  the  devel- 
oped form  of  the  energies  constituting  matter.  Whenever 
we  discard  the  traditional  concept  of  mind,  what  else  is  left? 

An  idea  is  the  residuum  of  an  external  energy  registered  in 
an  organism.  If  it  is  a  residuum,  why  is  it  not  identical  with 
the  energy  producing  it?  And  if  an  idea  is  not  a  residuum  of 
an  external  energy  producing  it,  what  is  it?  If  self  is  noth- 
ing but  a  developed  form  of  chemism,  and  we  know  self- 
impressions,  then,  don't  we  know  what  chemism  is?  If  we 
can  identify  self  with  chemism,  and  ideas  with  the  energies 
producing  them,  then  the  position  of  idealism  falls  down, 
that  is,  that  all  we  know  is  ideas,  and  that  nature  is  some- 
thing totally  different  from  them.  We  know  what  matter  is 
and  what  external  energies  are,  because  we  know  what  emo- 
tions and  ideas  are.  Our  knowledge  consists  in  the  identity 


80         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

of  self,  emotions  with  chemism,  and  ideas,  concepts  with 
external  energies,  and  thus  we  not  only  know  what  ideas  and 
emotions  are,  but  identify  our  knowledge  with  the  funda- 
mental energies  of  nature,  showing  that  within  ourselves  we 
know  all  there  is  to  know  in  the  realms  of  mind  and  in  the 
realms  of  matter,  such  knowledge  being  the  truth  in  the 
transcendentalist's  belief  that  mind  is  back  of  everything. 

This  explanation  of  life  and  mind  does  not  rob  us  of  any- 
thing, and  demonstrates  the  continuity  of  nature,  and  satis- 
fies our  longings  for  absolute  knowledge.  This  explanation 
of  life  and  mind  ushers  us  into  the  heart  of  hearts  of  the 
riddle  of  the  universe.  We  cannot  know  what  matter  and 
energy  are  in  terms  of  some  other  entity;  but  we  do  know 
what  they  are  in  terms  of  our  own  being,  and  through  this 
explanation  we  are  enabled  to  know  what  is  inscrutable  to 
our  senses  on  direct  observation.  Of  the  unknowns  (matter, 
energy  and  mind)  we  show  what  each  is  in  terms  of  the 
other.  It  would  be  sheer  nonsense  to  postulate  an  unknow- 
able, and  attempt  to  show  the  relation  of  matter,  energy  and 
mind  to  it.  To  know  what  matter  and  energies  are  in  terms 
of  mind,  and  vice  versa,  is  all  the  knowledge  there  is  on  this 
ultimate  problem. 

The  return  of  nature  upon  itself,  which  constitutes  our 
being,  enables  us  to  see  what  nature  is  in  the  infinitely  small 
and  the  infinitely  large  by  knowing  what  we  ourselves  are  as 
we  are.  The  human  mind  has  ever  been  haunted  with  the 
belief  that  there  is  a  purpose  in  nature.  Our  allegorical 
method  of  conceiving  things,  inherited  from  primitive  man, 
when  unable  to  understand  them  by  sheer  intellectuality,  has 
led  us  to  believe  that  there  is  to  be  a  falling  of  the  scales 
from  our  eyes,  and  a  seeing  of  things  face  to  face  at  some 
future  time.  This  is  what  is  accomplished  in  the  explana- 
tion of  matter  and  energy  that  they  are  but  the  primal  ener- 
gies of  the  will  and  the  intellect,  and  to  know  will  and 
intellect  is  to  know  the  energies  of  matter  and  the  energies 


REALISM   AND   IDEALISM  81 

constituting  the  conditions  of  matter,  and  the  seeming  pur- 
pose in  things  is  the  universal  process,  which,  beginning  with 
matter  and  energy  in  passing  through  its  cycle,  always  ends 
in  life,  mind  and  society  in  every  planet  of  the  starry  heavens 
as  here  on  earth. 

III. 

Prof.  F.  A.  Lang,  in  his  History  of  Materialism,  Vol. 
Ill,  p.  224,  makes  a  strong  statement  of  idealism  in  the 
following  language:  "The  eye,  with  which  we  believe  we 
see,  is  itself  only  a  product  of  our  ideas ;  and  when  we  find 
that  our  visual  images  are  produced  by  the  structure  of  the 
eye,  we  must  never  forget  that  the  eye,  too,  with  its 
arrangements,  the  optic  nerve  with  the  brain  and  all  the 
structures  which  we  may  yet  discover  there  as  causes  of 
thought,  are  only  ideas,  which  indeed  form  a  self -coherent 
world,  yet  a  world  which  points  to  something  beyond  itself." 

This,  too,  is  the  truth,  but  not  the  whole  truth.  An  idea 
of  the  eye  is  simply  the  residua  of  the  external  energy  of 
light,  or  the  residua  of  the  mechanical  energy  of  pressure,  if 
communicated  by  contact,  touch;  but  we  have  additional 
means  of  knowing  what  the  eye  is  by  our  consciousness  of  it 
as  a  part  of  our  organism. 

In  the  human  organism  the  energies  constituting  matter 
affect  the  nervous  system  of  the  organism  as  external  ener- 
gies affect  it;  and  as  knowledge  of  the  environment  consists 
of  residua  of  external  energies  cognizing  a  new  impression  of 
energy,  so  the  knowledge  of  self,  which  is  a  developed  form 
of  the  energies  of  matter,  consists  of  residual  impressions  of 
self  cognizing  a  new  impression  of  the  internal  energies  con- 
sistuting  self.  It  is  thus  we  know  matter  by  knowing  that 
the  energies  constituting  ourselves  and  the  energies  consti- 
tuting matter  are  identical.  So  we  have  a  knowledge  of  the 
eye  itself  by  registered  impressions  of  itself  receiving  a  new 
impression  of  itself.  And  as  the  residual  energies  are 
identical  with  the  energies  producing  them,  hence  the 


82         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

residua  of  external  energies  constituting  ideas  know  external 
energies;  and  the  residua  of  the  energies  of  matter  (self) 
being  identical  with  the  energies  of  matter,  know  the  ener- 
gies of  matter,  hence  we  not  only  know  ideas,  but  also  the 
energies  producing  them ;  and  we  not  only  know  the  energies 
constituting  matter,  because  we  know  ourselves,  but  also  the 
energies  of  matter  through  ourselves ;  or  to  know  the  one 
set  of  energies  in  each  case  is  to  know  the  other,  for  the 
energies  of  self  are  identical  with  the  energies  of  matter; 
and  the  energies  of  ideas  are  identical  with  the  energies  of 
external  nature  producing  them.  So  by  interpreting  nature 
in  terms  of  mind,  and  mind  in  terms  of  nature,  we  know 
both  mind  and  nature  by  showing  that  the  energies  consti- 
tuting the  one  are  identical  with  the  energies  constituting 
the  other.  And  this  knowledge  is  as  true  of  our  idea  of  our 
eye,  or  our  self-consciousness  of  it,  as  of  any  idea  or  any 
other  self-consciousness. 

While  all  we  can  know  of  our  eye  through  our  senses  is  an 
idea  of  it,  yet  we  know  an  energy  producing  an  impression  is 
identical  with  the  impression  itself;  it  is  simply  a  repetition 
of  itself;  that  the  impression  that  our  eye  makes  upon  our 
self -consciousness  is  identical  with  itself;  and  it  is  through 
these  registered  impressions  of  the  eye  that  a  new  impression 
is  cognized,  hence  through  these  impressions  we  know  the 
eye  other  than  through  the  physical  senses.  If  we  had  no 
eye,  we  certainly  could  never  know  the  eye  except  by  idea 
and  inference,  it  being  matter  and  in  general  like  it;  but 
having  an  eye,  we  know  it  by  the  impressions  it  itself  makes 
upon  our  self -consciousness,  such  impressions  being  identical 
with  the  eye  itself;  hence  we  have  immediate  knowledge  of 
the  eye  as  of  self  or  any  part  of  the  body. 

IV. 

As  an  idea  is  identical  with  the  energy  producing  it, 
so  is  our  idea  of  ourself  identical  with  the  energy  producing 


REALISM  AND   IDEALISM  83 

it,  which  is  identical  with  the  energy  of  matter;  and  by 
knowing  the  energies  constituting  matter,  and  the  energies 
constituting  the  conditions  of  matter,  we  not  only  know 
mind,  but  also  matter.  "We  know  external  energies  because 
they  are  identical  with  our  ideas;  and  we  know  matter 
because  we  are  matter ;  our  ego  being  nothing  but  an  evolved 
form  of  the  energies  constituting  all  matter.  We  know 
energies  (the  world)  because  they  leave  residua  of  themselves 
in  us,  which  become  a  part  of  us,  identical  with  themselves 
whereby  we  can  know  them. 

This  explanation  of  idealism  and  realism  clears  up  the 
mystery  of  existence,  and  satisfies  the  quest  for  knowledge 
of  things  in  themselves.  What  are  the  energies  of  matter, 
chemism?  The  answer  is,  they  are  identical  with  the  ener- 
gies constituting  ourselves— the  will  and  the  emotions. 
This  is  an  interpretation  of  matter  in  the  only  other  terms 
which  we  can  know.  What  are  external  energies,  light, 
heat  and  so  forth?  The  answer  is,  they  are  identical  with 
our  ideas  of  them.  This  explanation  of  external  energies 
reduces  them  to  the  only  other  terms  that  we  can  possibly 
understand.  It  is  absurd  to  think  that  matter  and  energy 
can  be  reduced  to  some  occult  form  of  energy.  A  natural 
explanation  is  all  that  can  be  given  of  anything.  The 
explanation  here  given  simply  reduces  the  phenomena  of 
life  and  mind  to  the  terms  of  the  internal  energies  of  matter 
and  the  external  energies  constituting  its  conditions.  The 
human  mind  to-day,  for  the  first  time,  during  the  universal 
process  here  on  earth,  is  competent  to  understand  the  ulti- 
mate nature  of  matter  and  energy;  and  to  understand  the 
universal  process  of  the  infinite  universe  to  be  a  process  or 
cycle,  beginning  with  the  expenditure  of  energy  along  the 
line  of  the  least  resistance  determined  by  the  contending 
energies,  resulting  in  the  maximum  waste  of  energy  as  seen 
in  inorganic  nature  everywhere;  and,  after  infinite  ages  of  the 
adjustment  of  radiant  and  gravitant  energies,  ending  in  the 


84         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

expenditure  of  energy  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance 
determined  by  morality,  resulting  in  perfect  economy  of 
energy,  the  minimum  amount  of  waste,  directing  all  the 
energy  of  nature,  the  individual  and  society,  to  the  perfec- 
tion of  the  individual,  and  thereby  the  perfection  of  society, 
and  reaching  the  summum  bonum  of  existence  here  on 
earth. 

While  the  mind  is  limited  strictly  to  the  function  it  is  to 
perform  that  of  adapting  animals  to  their  environment,  men 
to  society;  yet  the  greatest  possible  development  of  the 
human  race  can  only  be  accomplished  by  the  race  realizing 
conscious  existence,  and  this  can  be  attained  only  by  the 
mind  comprehending  what  the  universal  process  is,  and  the 
part  humanity  is  to  play  in  it;  hence  the  sheer  intellectual 
necessity  of  man's  knowing  what  he  is,  what  he  is  here  for, 
what  matter  and  energy  are,  and  what  is  the  destiny  of 
things. 

It  is  thus  absolutely  necessary  that  the  race  have  a  nat- 
uralistic concept  of  matter,  energy,  life,  mind,  and  society 
before  it  can  ever  hope  to  reduce  the  phenomena  of  society 
to  a  scientific  basis,  and  realize  a  perfect  expenditure  of  all 
energy  and  know  what  our  adumbrations  of  the  universal 
process  really  are.  Mind  must  be  based  on  facts  instead  of 
metaphysical  dreams.  The  continuity  of  nature  is  the  fun- 
damental truth  of  all  our  reasoning.  Sociology  cannot  be  a 
science  until  the  movements  of  society  are  reducible  to 
mechanical  principles  and  laws  to  the  certainty  of  prediction. 
This  philosophy  robs  life  of  nothing,  as  our  foolish  fears  make 
us  imagine  it  does ;  but  instead  destroys  that  bane  of  human 
existence — uncertainty.  How  many  provisions  do  we  make 
against  the  unforeseen ! — that  is  about  all  life  is  now.  But 
when  society  is  based  on  the  mechanical  laws  of  the  expendi- 
ture of  energy,  and  everything  is  explained  from  a  natural- 
istic point  of  view,  it  will  insure  the  individual  against  the 
precariousness  of  human  existence,  and  life  will  be  really 


REALISM   AND   IDEALISM  85 

worth  the  living.  Every  idea  will  be  traced  to  the  external 
energies  of  nature  producing  it;  every  emotion  to  the 
internal  energies  of  matter  producing  it.  Man's  unity  and 
kinship  with  nature  will  be  demonstrated.  For  the  first 
time  in  all  history  we  now  know  what  we  really  are,  what 
nature  is,  and  the  explanation  is  so  simple  the  wonder  is  we 
never  saw  it  before. 

Nature  is  one  continuous  whole.  It  consists  of  all  the 
matter  and  energies  of  the  universe.  There  are  no  breaks, 
no  gaps,  no  chasms,  no  missing-links — although  men  in 
their  classifications  of  the  phenomena  of  nature  have  mis- 
taken their  own  distinctions  for  the  differences  of  nature. 
To  understand  the  complex  phenomena  one  must  study  the 
simple.  Mind  comes  last,  not  first.  The  knowledge  gained 
from  studying  the  simplest  forms  is  carried  forward  to 
interpret  the  complex,  and  this  is  carried  forward  to  inter- 
pret the  compound.  The  only  way  to  understand  humanity 
is  to  shed  upon  it  all  the  light  that  can  be  gained  from  the 
study  of  all  nature,  as  well  as  the  human  race  itself.  Nature 
is  an  entirety.  Only  in  this  light  can  we  know  anything, 
and  in  this  light  we  can  know  everything. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

NATURALISM   VERSUS   8UPERKATURALI8M 
I. 

The  universal  process  of  the  adjustment  and  readjust- 
ment of  the  gravitant  and  radiant  energies  of  the  universe  and 
the  solar  system  causes  a  continual  changing  of  the  factors  of 
nature,  by  combination  and  recombination,  until  finally  there 
is  produced  here  on  earth  a  compound  or  organism  that  is 
independent  in  the  sense  that  it  has  within  itself  the  deter- 
mining factors  of  all  of  its  actions  in  expending  its  energies 
in  the  most  economic  manner  possible  from  its  own  point  of 
view.  This  is  the  individual.  Not  man  as  we  see  him 
to-day,  for  man  to-day  owes  infinitely  more  to  social  organi- 
zation for  his  development  than  to  nature ;  but  man  before 
he  became  homo  sapiens,  primitive  man  uninfluenced  by 
social  development. 

Individuals  as  independent  units,  another  nature,  because 
not  controlled  solely  by  the  three  laws  of  motion,  but  in 
addition  the  law  of  action  from  stimuli  controlled  by  ideas 
and  concepts — by  action  and  reaction  upon  themselves,  by 
adjustment  and  readjustment  of  themselves,  by  combination 
and  recombination  of  themselves,  formed  themselves  into  an 
organization,  which,  when  it  becomes  independent,  and 
reaches  perfection,  will  coordinate  all  the  individuals  into 
an  organization  that  will  be  perfectly  autonomous,  and  will 
expend  its  energies  with  the  greatest  economy  possible  in  all 
nature.  This  is  the  social  organization. 

The  theory  here  indicated  is  the  naturalistic  concept  of 
things.  The  theological  and  popular  concept  is  purely 
anthropomorphic  and  supernatural. 

86 


NATURALISM  VERSUS  SUPERNATURALISM   87 

II. 

The  two  phenomena  in  nature  that  seem  to  justify 
anthropomorphism  and  supernaturalism  are  the  phenomena 
of  order  and  design.  In  all  of  his  effects  upon  nature,  and 
in  all  of  his  effects  upon  his  fellow  men,  man  secures  order 
only  by  external  impressment,  for  in  society  order  consists  in 
the  expenditure  of  energy  according  to  the  most  powerful 
form  of  expending  energy,  ideals,  knowledge,  institutions, 
laws  and  morality;  so  that  naturally  man  thinks  the  order 
he  sees  in  nature  is  secured  by  some  supernatural  power 
independent  of  nature — its  Author  and  Maker.  Order  in 
society  is  from  the  outside.  Society  enforces  order  upon  the 
individual,  but  order  in  nature  is  inherent.  In  physical, 
inorganic  nature  energy  is  expended  along  the  lines  of  the 
least  resistance  determined  by  the  contending  energies,  and 
always  ends  in  order,  just  as  inevitably  as  society  enforces 
order  by  determining  the  way  individuals  shall  expend  their 
energies  along  the  lines  of  the  least  resistance  according  to 
laws  and  morality,  and  ends  in  the  order  of  society  as  we  see 
it  to-day.  But  to  primitive  man  the  theory  of  anthropo- 
morphism was  perfectly  natural,  for  the  primitive  mind  can 
understand  facts  only  allegorically.  We  know  to-day  that 
the  permanent  condition  of  things  in  inorganic  nature  is  that 
of  order,  and,  let  the  order  of  nature  be  disturbed,  as  it 
constantly  is,  owing  to  the  universal  process  of  the  adjust- 
ment of  the  radiant  and  gravitant  energies  constituting 
nature,  and  a  new  adjustment  at  once  takes  place  and  a  new 
order  is  secured.  Just  as  the  figures  in  a  kaleidoscope 
whenever  disturbed  take  on  a  new  and  symmetrical  shape, 
so  the  objects  of  nature,  no  matter  how  often  disturbed, 
always  immediately  assume  a  new  form  of  order,  instituted 
by  the  contending  energies,  expending  themselves  along  the 
lines  of  the  least  resistance  inevitably  and  always. 

The  same  is  true  in  the  affairs  of  men.  If  one  regime  is 
destroyed,  another  is  immediately  inaugurated.  Human 


88         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

energy  must  be  expended  according  to  some  kind  of  ideals, 
laws,  institutions,  morality,  and  if  the  forms  in  vogue  cease 
to  be  powerful  enough  to  accommodate  the  energy,  then  the 
opposing  and  new  forms  of  expenditure  take  their  place, 
possibly  to  go  back  to  the  old  forms,  or  vacillate,  as  in  the 
history  of  the  French  nation  since  the  great  Revolution,  or 
in  the  United  States  since  the  Revolution  of  1776.  The 
same  tendency  to  revert  to  old  forms  of  order,  after  some 
new  form  has  been  discovered,  is  seen  throughout  history, 
yet  there  is  a  gradual  progress  in  human  institutions  securing 
greater  and  greater  economy  of  expenditure  of  energy  and  a 
better  and  better  system  of  order. 

While  all  this  is  true,  yet  man  cannot  free  his  mind  from 
the  belief  that  order  in  nature  is  imposed  from  the  outside 
by  its  Author  and  Maker  as  society  imposes  it  on  the  indi- 
vidual, and  that  it  is  not  inherent  in  things.  Man  thinks 
that  order  must  be  preserved  in  nature  as  it  is  preserved  in 
society,  preserving  order  simply  consisting  in  having  the 
individual  expend  his  energies  along  the  lines  found  most 
conducive  to  the  welfare  of  the  race.  Revolution  is  nothing 
but  changing  such  expenditure  along  other  lines  better  able 
to  accommodate  the  energy  in  a  more  economic  manner; 
evolution  being  a  change  to  better  lines  of  expenditure 
gradually  by  growth,  development. 

The  order  secured  by  the  individual  is  also  different  from 
the  order  in  inorganic  nature.  Life  is  a  moving  equilibrium 
within  an  organism.  Energies  in  their  expenditure  in  ani- 
mal organisms  take  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  determined 
by  ideas,  instincts,  instead  of  the  line  of  the  least  resistance 
determined  by  the  contending  energies  themselves,  as  in 
inorganic  nature.  And  again,  inorganic  nature  is  a  moving 
equilibrium  of  objects  of  nature,  but  the  cycle  as  a  process 
is  performed  by  the  system  as  a  whole,  not  the  objects  con- 
stituting it.  The  movements  corresponding  to  life  is  with- 
out the  objects  instead  of  within  as  in  the  animal  organism. 


NATURALISM  VERSUS  SUPERNATURALISM    89 

The  arrangements  of  the  parts  in  inorganic  compounds  from 
solar  system  to  molecular  compounds  are  fixed.  The  parts 
do  not  form  a  moving  equilibrium.  The  order  in  inorganic 
nature  is  static. 

The  equilibrium  of  life  is  secured  by  an  adjustment  of  the 
contending  forces  of  external  and  internal  energies,  the 
powers  of  heredity  and  the  powers  of  variation.  The  ener- 
gies of  the  animal  organism  in  their  expenditure  along  the 
lines  of  the  least  resistance  are  determined  by  ideas,  instincts, 
not  the  blind  battling  of  energies  that  we  see  in  inorganic 
nature.  "When  the  equilibrium  of  an  organism  stops,  it  is 
said  to  die  and  its  body  sinks  to  the  order  of  inorganic 
nature,  but  usually  before  dying  a  natural  death  the  animal 
organism  reproduces  itself,  a  phenomenon  not  unknown  to 
inorganic  nature,  it  being  adumbrated  in  certain  chemical 
phenomena.  Besides,  in  organic  compounds  the  parts  are 
equilibrated  as  well  as  the  whole  and  perform  independent 
movements.  The  animal  organism  is  a  moving  equilibrium. 
The  order  in  organic  compounds  is  dynamic. 

Society,  too,  is  a  moving  equilibrium  of  forces — an  organ- 
ization secured  by  the  adjustment  of  the  contending  forces 
of  order  and  progress,  conservatism  and  radicalism,  statics 
and  dynamics  of  the  social  organization.  The  energies  of 
the  social  organism  in  their  expenditure  along  the  line  of  the 
least  resistance  are  determined  by  laws,  institutions,  morality, 
and  the  economy  secured  is  the  greatest  seen  in  nature,  and 
when  society  ceases  to  govern  or  for  the  time  being  is 
departed  from,  overturned,  the  resulting  life  is  that  of  the 
horde,  the  mob.  The  order  secured  in  society  is  the  highest 
known  to  nature.  It  is  doubly  dynamic — dynamic  in  its 
units,  the  individuals,  and  dynamic  as  a  social  organism, 
being  controlled  by  social  consciousness. 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  there  are  three  forms  of  order  in 
nature.  First,  order  in  the  inorganic,  which  is  secured  by 
the  expenditure  of  energy  along  the  line  of  the  least  resist- 


90         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

ance  determined  by  the  contending  energies ;  second,  order 
as  in  the  organic  (man),  in  which  energies  are  expended 
along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  determined  by  ideas  of 
the  individual ;  and  third,  order  as  seen  in  society  in  which 
energies  are  expended  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance 
determined  by  laws,  institutions,  morality.  Each  form  of 
order  is  an  improvement  upon  the  other  in  that  the  economy 
of  energy  is  greater,  and  the  organization  is  more  perfect. 
The  universal  process  tends  to  a  final  adjustment  in  which 
the  order  will  be  perfect,  and  the  energies  of  nature,  the 
individual  and  society  will  be  expended  with  the  greatest 
economy  possible.  This  will  be  the  perfect  society,  the 
ultimate  destiny  of  intelligent  beings  here  on  earth  as  well 
as  on  every  other  planet  throughout  the  entire  universe. 

Thus  it  makes  no  difference  where  we  look  in  nature,  we 
find  that  order  is  nature's  first  law  and  is  inherent  in  matter 
and  energies  themselves.  But  philosophers  are  loath  to  give 
up  supernatural  explanations  of  nature,  life,  mind  and 
society,  and  accept  as  true  materialistic  or  naturalistic  con- 
cepts until  every  objection  against  the  new  philosophy  is 
overcome.  But  by  that  time,  as  in  the  acceptance  of  the 
law  of  natural  selection,  enough  thinkers  will  have  accepted 
the  theory  so  that  the  explanation  of  minor  details  will  be 
unnecessary. 

III. 

There  are  certain  stock  arguments  forever  being  used 
as  a  proof  of  the  supernatural  origin  of  things,  for  example, 
design,  despite  the  fact  that  Emanuel  Kant,  in  his  Critique 
of  Pure  Reason,  has  shown  the  impossibility  of  logically 
proving  the  existence  of  God  in  any  way.  It  is  certainly  not 
a  waste  of  time  then  to  examine  the  design  argument  in 
favor  of  supernaturalism,  because  it  is  always  conclusive  to 
undeveloped  minds. 

Do  not  misunderstand  me.  The  concept  of  a  supernat- 
ural God,  creating  and  governing  the  universe  for  His  own 


XATURALISM  VERSUS  SUPERNATURALISM    91 

glory,  making  man  in  His  own  image,  giving  him  immortal 
life,  is  the  greatest  theory  of  things  ever  conceived  by  the 
human  imagination,  except  the  concept  that  all  nature  is 
one  universal  process,  that  nature  is  self-sufficing,  and  that 
what  seems  to  be  design  in  nature  is  a  result  of  the  forces 
now  at  work  in  nature  and  society.  No  matter  how  beauti- 
ful the  concept  of  a  supernatural  God  is,  if  untrue  it  should 
not  be  taught;  for  nothing  but  the  truth  can  perfectly 
adapt  man  to  nature  and  society.  I  define  the  truth  as 
being  an  exact  registration  of  the  energies  of  the  environ- 
ment in  the  individual,  which  makes  mind  a  perfect  repro- 
duction of  the  environment,  so  that  the  mind  is  a  perfect 
counterpart  of  nature,  and  with  the  moral  and  social 
senses  acts  as  a  perfect  guide  in  the  expenditure  of  human 
energy  in  nature  and  society.  The  truth  is  the  exact  like- 
ness of  the  internal  registrations  in  an  organism  to  the 
external  stimuli  in  the  environment,  so  that  the  individual 
can  know  what  is  outside  himself  by  consulting  his  own  mind. 

The  adaptation  of  an  organism  to  its  environment  is  said 
to  indicate  design,  but  the  adjustment  of  individuals  to  the 
social  organization  is  said  to  be  due,  not  to  design,  but  to 
the  freedom  of  the  will  of  the  individual;  for  the  social 
organization  to-day  is  so  manifestly  imperfect  that  it  would 
be  folly  to  say  its  present  condition  is  due  to  an  all-wise, 
supernatural  God  instead  of  the  natural  action  and  reaction 
of  individuals  in  their  opposition  to  one  another,  beginning 
with  primal  man  in  tribes,  then  confederations,  nations  and 
society  to-day,  as  we  see  it  in  western  civilization. 

The  eye  is  said  to  be  designed  for  light.  It  is  not.*  The 
eye  is  a  repetition  of  all  of  the  eyes  that  have  ever  been  in 

*  "  Nothing  was  produced  in  the  body  to  the  end  that  we  might  use  it ;  but 
that  which  has  been  produced,  being  found  serviceable  for  certain  ends,  begets 
use.  Neither  was  the  faculty  of  seeing  in  existence  before  the  light  of  the  eyes 
was  made,  nor  that  of  speaking  with  words  before  the  tongue  was  formed;  but 
rather  the  origin  of  the  tongue  long  preceded  speech,  and  the  ears  were  made 
long  before  any  sound  was  heard ;  and  in  fine  all  the  members  as  I  think  existed 
before  there  was  any  use  of  them  discovered.  They  could  not,  therefore,  have 


92         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

the  history  of  some  given  individual,  beginning,  for  exam- 
ple, with  the  eye-spot  of  some  infusorian,  the  first  reaction 
of  protoplasm  to  light,  and  ending  in  the  eye  of  the  given 
individual,  each  eye  in  each  successive  organism  being  modi- 
fied to  some  extent  by  the  action  of  external  light,  the  modi- 
fication being  inherited,  thus  adapting  the  eye  more  and 
more  to  light,  until  finally  by  the  repetition  of  billions  of 
organisms,  with  their  inherited  modifications,  the  human 
eye  is  produced  with  all  of  its  perfections.  "What  is  true  of 
the  eye  is  true  of  every  organ,  of  the  organism  as  a  whole, 
and  it  is  equally  true  of  the  ideals,  the  knowledge,  laws  and 
institutions  of  society. 

IV 

There  is  no  difference  in  kind  between  the  adaptation 
of  man  to  his  environment  and  the  adaptation  of  an  inorganic 
chemical  compound  to  its  environment ;  only,  by  registering 
his  conditions  in  his  body  and  nervous  system,  man  carries 
with  him  not  only  his  present  conditions  for  adaptative  pur- 
poses to  nature  and  society,  but  also  the  inherited  experience 
of  all  of  his  ancestors  in  the  form  of  mind  and  the  moral  and 
social  senses,  so  that  he  can  not  only  adjust  himself  through 
present  experience  but  also  through  the  past  experience  of 
the  entire  race  whence  he  sprang.  This  adjusting  appa- 
ratus is  the  nervous  system,  consisting  of  the  senses,  the 
intellect,  character,  the  moral  and  social  senses,  and  laws, 
institutions  and  morality. 

What  looks  like  design  in  nature  is  that  view  of  an  object, 
or  organism,  which  excludes  its  ontogeny,  its  phylogeny  and 
the  reasons  and  causes  of  its  being.  Well  might  a  savage 
think  a  locomotive  the  work  of  a  supernatural  God;  for  he 
does  not  know  its  history  and  is  too  feeble-minded  and  igno- 

been  produced  for  the  sake  of  being  used."— LUCRETIUS'  The  Nature  of  Things. 
Bohn's  translation,  p.  177. 

This  quotation  shows  us  that  we  are  to-day  taking  up  the  theory  of  things 
taught  by  Epicurus  and  Democritus  after  thousands  of  years  of  aberrations 
due  to  oriental  dreams. 


NATURALISM   VERSUS  SUPERKATURALISM     93 

rant  to  understand  its  philosophy.  This  is  the  condition  of 
the  common  person  to-day  in  regard  to  objects  in  nature 
and  man  in  society.  From  his  infancy  up  the  common  man 
has  been  taught  the  erroneous  supernatural  explanation  of 
things.  Ignorant  of  their  real  history,  unacquainted  with 
their  philosophy,  no  wonder  the  common  man  sees  anything 
else  but  design  in  nature  and  society ;  yet  nothing  is  truer 
than  that  the  organization  of  nature  and  society  is  due  to  the 
adjustment  and  readjustment  of  things  of  their  own  accord 
during  countless  ages  of  actions  and  reactions  in  nature  and 
society,  following  the  laws  of  repetition  and  the  law  of  nat- 
ural selection.  If  there  is  any  design  it  is  inherent  in  the 
elements  and  energies  of  nature  and  not  imposed  upon  them 
by  some  extraneous  supernatural  power,  and  consists  in  the 
simple  law  of  nature  that  all  energy,  gravitant  and  radiant, 
expends  itself  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance. 

There  is  no  more  free  will  intrinsically  in  the  actions  and 
reactions  of  individuals  than  in  any  other  objects  in 
nature,  except  that  the  individual  being  able  to  act  from 
intellect  is  able  to  expend  his  energies  along  other  lines  than 
the  line  of  expending  energy  of  the  one  experience  of  inor- 
ganic nature.  So  social  man  of  to-day,  being  able  to  expend 
his  energies  along  the  lines  of  morality  and  sociality,  is  still 
more  free  than  the  primitive  individual  acting  from  intellect 
alone.  But  no  matter  the  improvement  made  upon  the 
primitive  method  of  the  expenditure  of  energy,  yet  the 
primal  law,  that  all  energy  expends  itself  along  the  line  of 
the  least  resistance,  holds  good  everywhere  and  at  all  times. 

The  individual  primarily  is  an  independent  organism  with 
the  function  of  controlling  the  energies  of  nature ;  secon- 
darily, he  is  a  unit  in  the  social  organization,  being  the  cen- 
ter of  human  energy,  who,  in  the  absence  of  any  control, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  society,  expends  his  energies  as 
wastefully  as  does  nature  its  energies  before  the  development 
of  the  individual ;  and  just  as  the  natural  action  and  reac- 


94        THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

tion  of  the  energies  of  primal  nature  result  in  the  production 
of  the  intellect  of  the  individual  with  the  function  of  con- 
trolling the  energies  of  nature,  so  does  the  natural  action  and 
reaction  of  individuals  in  society  result  in  the  production  of 
the  moral  and  social  senses  with  the  function  of  controlling 
the  energy  of  individuals.  The  design  we  see  in  nature  is  due 
to  the  adjustment  of  the  energies  of  nature,  under  the  blind 
expenditure  of  energy  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance 
determined  by  the  contending  energies,  which  results  here 
on  earth  in  chemical  compounds.  The  design  we  see  in  the 
animal  organism  is  due  to  the  adjustment  of  the  organism  to 
the  energies  of  nature,  after  infinite  essays,  controlled  by 
the  laws  of  repetition  and  the  law  of  natural  selection,  end- 
ing in  the  development  of  mind  and  the  control  of  natural 
energies  by  ideas.  The  design  we  see  in  society  is  due  to 
the  countless  ages  of  action  and  reaction  of  individuals  upon 
individuals,  adjustment  and  readjustment,  conflict  of  tribe 
with  tribe,  repetition  of  favorable  changes  initiated  by  the 
environment,  further  modified  by  external  repetitions,  pre- 
served by  internal  repetitions,  everything  gained  being 
always  preserved  by  repetition  and  natural  selection,  until 
finally  modern  man  and  modern  society  are  produced,  in 
which  ultimately  all  energy  will  be  expended  by  the  highest 
form  of  the  law  of  the  expenditure  of  energy  known  to  man : 
morality — which  is  realized  in  the  expenditure  of  human 
energy  with  perfect  economy.  No  wonder  modern  man, 
born  into  a  civilization  so  wonderful,  thinks  it  supernatural 
until  he  finds,  from  the  study  of  its  history,  its  crude  begin- 
nings, its  painful  development,  its  glorious  achievements, 
that  it  has  been  produced,  as  he  himself  and  everything  else 
in  nature,  by  naturalistic  causes. 

V 

The  belief  in  a  supernatural,  anthropomorphic  God,  either 
as  a  person  or  as  mind,  guiding,  controlling  and  protecting 


NATURALISM  VERSUS   SUPERNATURALISM     95 

society  to-day,  takes  the  place  of  the  guidance  of  society 
through  institutions  based  on  verifiable  public  corporate 
knowledge — the  social  sense.  If  God  be  a  person,  then  He 
must  have  a  body;  for  personality  consists  of  the  energies 
constituting  matter  organized  with  the  energies  constituting 
the  conditions  of  matter.  If  God  be  mind,  then  it  must 
have  a  brain ;  for  mind  is  the  condition  of  brain  matter  con- 
taining the  registered  energies  of  matter  and  the  registered 
energies  of  external  nature.  Both  concepts  are  utterly 
absurd.  And  why  any  man  should  worship  such  a  being  to 
obtain  salvation  shows  how  completely  the  emotion  of  species- 
protection  (religion)  in  man  is  perverted,  blind",  especially 
when  it  is  further  remembered  that  such  worship  is  attended 
with  mysterious  ceremonies,  useless  practices  and  absurd 
forms. 

The  only  object  in  the  universe  worthy  of  sacrifice  is 
society,  for  to  it,  and  not  to  a  supernatural  God,  does  the 
individual  owe  all  of  his  morality,  his  sociality,  his  intellec- 
tuality. The  devotion,  however,  that  society  inspires  is  not 
the  meaningless  ceremonies  of  theology,  but  intelligent  work 
at  the  uplifting  of  the  human  race.  This  is  naturalistic 
religion.  So  far  in  history  man  has  reached  his  present 
degree  of  development  without  dominant  social  control.  If 
the  individual  now  can  be  coordinated  with  the  social 
organization,  then  a  social  organism  will  result  which  will  be 
intelligent  in  proportion  as  the  individual  is  intelligent,  and 
we  may  expect  to  see  a  race-devotion  (religion)  among  men 
greater  in  proportion  as  man  is  greater  than  other  animals. 
This  will  be  the  realization  of  the  true  religion  dreamed  of 
by  prophets  in  all  ages,  the  one  emotion  lacking  to-day  to 
make  life  full  and  complete  despite  the  ills  attending  con- 
scious existence.  Religion  is  not  based  on  the  supernatural, 
but  instead  is  subject  to  a  naturalistic  explanation  as  we 
shall  see  more  fully  in  a  subsequent  part  of  our  investigation. 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  mind  outside  of  organic  prod- 


96         THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

nets ;  for  there  is  not  a  scintilla  of  evidence  to  show  any  of 
that  economy  in  the  universe,  the  solar  system,  or  inorganic 
nature  here  on  earth  that  is  seen  in  organic  nature  due  to 
mind.  All  phenomena  are  known  in  their  effects  and  a  test 
for  mind  can  be  made  as  easily  as  one  can  be  made  for  heat, 
light  or  electricity.  The  test  for  mind  is  order,  not 
the  order  of  the  universe,  the  solar  system  or  inorganic 
nature  produced  by  the  antagonism  of  energies,  but  the 
order,  for  example,  of  an  animal,  resulting  from  an  economic 
expenditure  of  energy  which  the  substance  protoplasm  has 
the  ability  to  make  and  perpetuate  in  its  offspring,  which  in 
turn  increases  the  ability  until  finally  the  human  mind  is 
produced,  being  able  to  economize  not  only  its  own  energies 
but  also  most  of  the  energies  of  inorganic  nature.  Mind 
adjusts  means  to  ends;  nature's  ends  are  the  resultant  of 
the  opposing  energies  blindly  neutralizing  and  wasting  one 
another.  The  order  of  mind  is  a  distinct  improvement 
upon  the  order  of  nature,  as  the  order  of  society  is  a  distinct 
improvement  upon  the  order  of  mind,  and  one  who  cannot 
see  this  has  not  the  acumen  necessary  for  a  scientific  investiga- 
tion of  nature,  the  individual  and  society.  The  adjustments 
we  see  in  the  universe,  the  solar  system  and  inorganic  nature 
here  on  earth,  from  the  human  point  of  view,  are  at  incon- 
ceivable waste  of  energy.  There  is  none  of  that  economy  of 
energy,  none  of  that  plan  or  purpose,  which  we  would  see  if 
the  universe,  the  solar  system  or  inorganic  nature  here  on 
earth  were  controlled  by  mind,  instead  of  the  blind  battling 
of  natural  energies  expending  themselves  in  the  universal 
process  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  determined  by 
the  contending  energies.  We  are  so  in  the  habit  of  looking 
at  the  universe,  the  solar  system  and  inorganic  nature  here 
on  earth  as  if  they  were  perfect,  owing  to  our  theological 
conception  of  things,  are  so  afraid  to  mention  a  defect  even 
if  we  should  find  one,  and  are  so  impotent  ourselves,  that  we 
see  reluctantly  what  all  of  these  wonderful  phenomena  could 


NATUHALISM  VERSUS   SUPERXATURALISM     97 

be  had  they  been  produced  by  mind  instead  of  the  blind 
battling  of  natural  energies. 

The  erroneous  notion  that  mind  is  back  of  the  universe 
conies  from  an  imperfect  concept  of  what  the  mind  really  is, 
and  a  belief  that  any  and  all  order  is  a  result  of  mind  when  it  is 
only  economic  order  that  is  so.  We  know  of  no  mind  except 
the  animal  mind  and  the  human  mind,  and  they  are  differ- 
ent only  in  the  degree  of  development.  The  human  mind  is 
the  residua  of  the  energies  it  comes  in  contact  with  and, 
despite  its  lowly  origin,  it  is  capable  of  conceiving  what  the 
universe  is,  because  the  energies  compassing  the  universe  are 
identical  with  the  energies  affecting  the  mind.  But  for 
the  thought-shopping  theories  of  theology,  chief  of  which  is 
a  belief  in  a  supernatural  God,  mankind,  no  doubt  ere  this, 
would  have  formed  a  true  concept  of  the  universal  process, 
and  would  have  arrived  at  ultimate  answers  to  the  funda- 
mental problems  of  existence. 

But  may  there  not  be  a  supernatural  mind?  Then  there 
would  have  to  be  a  supernatural  organism  that  could  receive 
impressions  from  supernatural  energies  in  a  supernatural 
universe.  But  we  do  not  see  any  supernatural  economy  in  the 
universe,  the  solar  system  or  inorganic  nature  here  on  earth, 
but  instead  an  incalculable  waste  of  energy  which  the  puny 
mind  of  man  can  suggest  methods  of  saving,  though  now  too 
impotent  to  apply  except  here  on  earth.  This  search  for  a 
supernatural  God  is  pure  anthropomorphism. 

Let  us  look  at  the  facts  as  they  are :  Mind  only  knows 
what  it  comes  in  contact  with.  It  is  a  phenomenon  pure 
and  simple,  and  is  not  as  superior  a  way  of  controlling 
energy  as  the  moral  and  social  senses,  as  will  be  shown  in  a 
subsequent  part  of  this  work.  The  human  mind  was  made 
by  the  external  energies  registering  themselves  in  the  human 
organism  with  the  function  of  guiding  the  organism  in 
nature,  and  for  that  purpose  it  is  admirably  adapted,  but 
when  it  comes  to  controlling  the  expenditure  of  the  energies 


98        THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

of  human  beings  in  society  it  signally  fails,  and  only  for  the 
development  of  the  moral  and  social  senses  human  society 
could  never  have  been  developed.  Mind  is  neither  as  God-like 
nor  as  powerful  as  the  moral  and  social  senses.  Mind  no 
doubt  is  a  wonderful  thing,  but  the  most  wonderful,  God- 
like thing  in  all  the  universe  is  not  the  intellect,  but  man's 
social  nature,  what  in  this  work  is  called  the  moral  and 
social  senses. 

When  in  the  course  of  the  universal  process  it  becomes 
necessary  for  us  to  form  a  concept  of  the  universe,  we  do  it 
in  the  terms  of  nature  immediately  around  us.  Nature  is  a 
repetition  of  similar  parts,  so  our  concept  of  nature  about  us 
is  a  key  to  unlimited  space  and  time.  While  mind  is  purely 
a  local  phenomenon,  yet  it  is  God-like  in  its  range  of  vision 
when  unhampered  by  thought-stopping  concepts.  Kepler, 
before  the  law  of  gravitation  was  known,  was  compelled  to 
assume  that  spirits  controlled  the  planets  in  their  orbits; 
so  every  one,  before  the  laws  of  nature,  the  individual  and 
society  were  known,  before  the  control  of  society  by  the 
moral  and  social  senses  was  discovered,  was  compelled  to 
assume  that  a  supernatural  God  controlled  and  guided 
nature,  the  individual  and  society.  But  we  know  better 
now;  we  know  that  all  the  phenomena  of  nature  can  be 
explained  in  terms  of  matter  and  energy,  and  that  matter 
and  energy  can  be  explained  in  the  terms  of  life  and  mind, 
and  that  it  is  the  function  of  society  to  direct  the  expen- 
diture of  all  energy  into  the  most  economic  channels 
possible. 

The  only  design  there  is  in  nature  is  put  there  by  the 
imagination  of  man ;  the  only  design  there  is  in  society  is 
put  there  by  society  itself;  for  design  consists  in  expending 
energies,  whether  of  nature,  the  individual  or  of  society,  in 
the  most  economic  manner  possible,  and  is  nowhere  seen  in 
nature  or  society  except  as  a  result  of  animal  or  human 
intelligence. 


NATURALISM  VERSUS   SUPERNATURALISM    99 

It  is  impossible  for  human  beings  to  change  a  law  of 
nature ;  but  it  is  not  impossible  to  modify  the  structure  of 
nature  (matter)  so  that  natural  laws  will  act  to  human 
advantage ;  a  natural  law  being  the  invariable  way  an  energy 
expends  itself  in  nature.  So  it  is  impossible  for  society  to 
change  human  nature,  but  it  is  not  impossible  for  society  to 
modify  the  conditions  of  the  expenditure  of  human  ener- 
gies (knowledge,  ideals,  institutions,  laws,  morality)  so  that 
human  energy,  feelings  and  emotions  will  act  to  social 
advantage;  human  nature  being  the  variable  ways  human 
energy  expends  itself  in  society.  In  each  case  there  are  two 
factors :  energies  and  structures  in  which  the  energies  expend 
themselves ;  and  while  the  energies  cannot  be  changed  as  to 
their  nature,  the  structure  in  which  they  act  can  be  changed, 
and  that  is  all  that  is  necessary  to  make  the  individual  the 
perfecter  of  nature  and  society  the  perfecter  of  the  indi- 
vidual. This  is  the  origin  of  all  the  design  there  is  or  can 
be  in  nature  and  society.  Just  as  man  can  arrange  appa- 
ratus to  control  electricity,  so  can  society  invent  institutions 
to  control  selfishness,  lust,  cupidity,  tyranny  and  all  the 
other  individual  energies  that  are  unsocial.  Each  is  a 
problem  in  mechanics,  and  both  are  certain  of  ultimate 
solution  in  the  course  of  the  adjustment  and  readjustment 
of  things  during  the  universal  process  here  on  earth. 

We  live  in  an  age  of  naturalism.  Society  is  the  arbiter  of 
nature,  the  individual  and  its  own  destiny,  not  some  super- 
natural God. 

VI 

There  is  an  unconscious  kind  of  mind  which  we  call 
instinct.  It  is  mind  produced  by  external  stimuli  upon  an 
organism  uninfluenced  by  other  experiences  of  the  organism. 
As  soon  as  this  unconscious  kind  of  mind  becomes  sufficiently 
developed  to  utilize  itself  in  developing  a  further  growth  of 
mind  we  call  it  reason.  Reason  is  classifying.  There  are 


100      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

several  different  ways  of  expending  energy.  An  individual 
receives  an  impression  from  the  environment;  to  reason  is 
to  pass  in  review  the  several  ways  of  expending  energy  and 
let  the  internal  liberated  energies  take  the  one  that  will 
expend  the  energy  of  the  organism  in  the  most  economic 
manner  possible.  There  is  no  design  in  nature  except 
through  reason ;  for  design  means  to  make  the  energies  of 
nature  expend  themselves  according  to  a  plan,  an  object,  an 
end.  The  plan  is  an  idea.  Design  is  .to  expend  the  energy 
according  to  some  definite  economic  plan  and  the  plan  may 
be  unconscious  as  hi  instinct  or  conscious  according  to  reason. 
The  action  resulting  from  instinct,  being  followed  for 
countless  ages,  controlled  by  the  laws  of  repetition  and  nat- 
ural selection,  results  in  wonderful  structures,  yet  the  result 
is  not  thought  out,  not  planned.  It  is  due  purely  to  natural 
adjustment  and  readjustment  under  the  laws  of  repetition 
and  the  law  of  natural  selection.  Life,  and  all  the  wonder- 
ful organs  of  our  wonderful  body,  is  due  to  response  to 
external  stimulus,  the  law  of  external  repetition  adapting 
the  organism  to  the  environment,  the  law  of  internal  repeti- 
tion preserving  the  beneficial  adaptations  made  by  the  law 
of  natural  selection.  This  is  the  story  of  animal  life  from 
the  first  protoplasm  up  to  man. 

There  is  a  kind  of  society  that  is  unconscious.  It  is  our 
civilization,  for  society  to-day  has  not  yet  reached  the  stage 
in.  its  existence  corresponding  to  the  age  of  reason  in  ani- 
mals. Society  to-day  is  produced  solely  by  the  interaction 
of  its  individuals,  uninfluenced  by  society  as  a  conscious 
organization.  It  is  similar  to  an  animal  controlled  by 
instinct  and  devoid  of  reason.  Social  actions  are  due 
exclusively  to  stimulus  and  occur  invariably  in  response  to 
the  one  stimulus,  the  ensuing  action  not  being  controlled  by 
other  experiences  inherited  from  the  past.  No  new  methods  of 
expending  energies  are  consciously  devised,  only  by  the  slow 
process  of  individual  initiation.  As  soon  as  human  knowl- 


NATURALISM  VERSUS  SUPERNATURALISM    101 

edge  becomes  sufficiently  developed  so  that  society  can  con- 
sciously devise  institutions  for  the  expenditure  of  its 
energies  it  will  be  fully  oriented  and  will  act  consciously, 
and  the  individual  will  enter  into  that  perfect  state  dreamed 
of  by  poet  and  philosopher  in  all  ages.  The  design  we  see 
in  society  to-day  is  not  due  to  public,  verifiable  knowledge, 
but  instead  to  present  stimulus  in  the  form  of  expediency, 
policy,  necessity,  the  law  of  supply  and  demand.  There  is 
none  of  that  looking  ahead  in  society  to-day  which  charac- 
terizes all  scientific  knowledge,  but  only  the  planning  of 
social  instinct  which  takes  a  rule  and  follows  it  without 
knowing  how  or  why.  So  far  in  civilization  society  has 
not  attempted  its  highest  possible  form  of  life,  that  of 
directing  itself  as  an  organism  by  scientific,  public,  corporate 
knowledge,  instead  of  blind  feeling  or  instinct  as  we  see  in 
society  to-day.  Whether  or  not  this  control  is  to  come  about 
with  this  present  civilization,  or  that  humanity  will  suffer 
another  great  wave  of  depression  similar  to  the  Dark  Ages, 
such  as  have  occurred  many  times  in  the  history  of  the  race,, 
as  is  evidenced  by  history,  will  be  seen  within  the  twentieth 
century.  The  great  giant  humanity  will  either  use  scientific 
knowledge  with  which  to  perfect  himself,  or  else  see  the 
horror  of  his  situation,  know  too  much  for  his  power  of 
accomplishment  in  comparison  with  the  reformation  and 
development  to  be  made,  and  in  despair,  Hamlet-like, 
become  mad,  let  revolution,  anarchy,  irreligion,  and  other 
social  diseases  destroy  him,  as  when  the  wild  barbarians  came 
down  from  the  north  and  destroyed  the  civilization  of 
Greece  and  Rome,  and  then,  with  his  mind  purged  of  futile 
knowledge  and  filled  with  the  hope  of  rejuvenated  youth, 
begin  to  form  another  civilization  whose  every  stature 
rises  higher  and  higher  with  every  civilization,  until  the 
perfect  orientation  of  the  race  shall  have  been  accomplished 
and  the  ultimate  socialization  of  the  giant  Humanity  be 
attained. 


102      THE  SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

VII 

The  chief  reason  for  not  discarding  supernatural} sm  to-day 
is  on  account  of  its  association  with  religion,  humanity  believ- 
ing that  to  forsake  supernaturalism  will  result  in  the  extinc- 
tion of  religion.  Such  is  not  the  case.  It  is  true  that  moral- 
ity and  religion  are  intrinsically  sacred,  but  no  belief  is  sacred 
except  the  truth,  the  verifiable  relation  existing  between 
the  mind  and  the  environment  consisting  of  nature  and 
society.  Keligion  became  associated  with  a  belief  in  God 
and  an  immortal  life  beyond  the  grave  by  originally  being  the 
worship  of  some  natural  phenomenon  personified,  or  the 
worship  of  some  hero  that  had  rendered  great  service  to 
the  tribe  in  time  of  tribal  peril.  In  life  the  hero  was  paid 
the  greatest  homage  and  at  death  his  spirit  received  divine 
worship.  In  the  great  struggle  for  existence  between  tribe 
and  tribe  that  tribe  survived  which  had  the  strongest  organ- 
ization, and  this  was  the  tribe  that  used  the  imaginary  hero 
beyond  the  grave  to  enforce  the  decrees  of  the  living  tribe 
left  behind.  The  imaginary  life  beyond  the  grave  made  the 
life  of  the  hero-ruler  continuous  throughout  great  lengths 
of  time.  The  ruler  became  immortal,  hence  there  was  no 
disruption  of  the  tribe  at  his  death.  From  this  belief  in  an 
immortal  ruler  of  the  tribe,  that  could  reward  and  punish  as 
a  living  ruler,  there  grew  up  a  belief  in  an  immortal  Euler  of 
the  whole  universe,  anthropomorphism,  supernaturalism. 
And  this  belief  in  God  became  the  greatest,  and  is  the  great- 
^est  stimulus  to  religion  to-day ;  for  through  it  the  tribe,  the 
^nation,  and  to-day  western  civilization  is  bound  together. 
'jThe  primal  function  of  religion  is  that  of  binding  the 
tribe,  the  nation  and  ultimately  humanity  together  in  one 
organism,  hence  the  sacredness  of  the  belief  in  God  and  the 
close  association  of  religion  with  supernaturalism. 

It  did  not  take  a  great  amount  of  knowledge  to  show  even 
primitive  man  that  a  physical  God  was  an  absurdity.  Hence 
the  spiritualization  of  God,  followed  by  the  spiritualization 


NATURALISM  VERSUS  SUPERXATURALISM    103 

of  the  life  of  man.  But  to  show  that  there  is  no  discovery 
in  this,  let  us  examine  the  meaning  of  the  words  used  to 
indicate  spiritual  states.  Spiritas,  means  breath;  ghost 
means  gas ;  all  the  terms  to  indicate  the  supernatural  are 
but  attenuated  forms  of  the  natural.  What  God  is,  what 
spirit  is,  is  pushed  back  farther  and  farther  into  the  realms 
of  unreality,  have  become  less  and  less  believable,  hence 
the  belief  in  God  has  ceased  to  be  the  powerful  stimulus  to 
religion,  to  racial  solidarity,  as  formerly  with  primitive  man. 

To-day  we  have  a  belief  in  a  supernatural  God  and  an 
immortal  life  beyond  the  grave,  and  as  the  original  useful 
belief  in  the  divine  hero  stimulated  the  emotion  of  religion 
among  our  primitive  ancestors,  because  through  it  the  tribe 
was  unified  and  perpetuated,  so  to-day  the  comparatively 
useless  belief  in  a  supernatural  God  (useless  because  not 
really  and  truly  believed  in  by  western  civilization  for  the 
last  two  or  three  centuries)  and  an  immortal  life,  likewise 
stimulate  the  emotion  of  religion,  but  to  a  much  less  extent. 
Religion  is  not  based  on  the  supernatural,  but  on  any  belief 
natural  or  supernatural  that  will  unify,  will  solidarify  the 
human  race.  Religion  is  always  found  to  be  due  to  some 
race- serving  function,  no  matter  how  remote,  let  it  be  a 
belief,  an  act,  a  ceremony,  a  hope,  or  an  actual  service  to  the 
race  consciously  rendered.  To  religion  the  race  owes  its 
solidarity  to-day  no  less  than  when  it  meant  simply  obey- 
ing some  dead  hero  out  of  gratitude  for  past  service,  or 
for  fear  of  future  punishment.  Without  religion  the  race 
cannot  exist ;  however,  it  is  not  religion  based  on  the  super- 
naturalism  of  to-day  that  is  so  essential  to  racial  salvation, 
but  the  religion  of  the  moral  and  social  senses,  a  religion  of 
pure  naturalism,  a  religion  in  which  morality  and  religion  sus- 
tain to  each  other  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect. 

VIII 

For  every  kind  of  aggregation  throughout  the  universe 
there  is  a  corresponding  energy  causing  it  in  the  aggre- 


104      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

gated  body  or  organization.  In  all  inorganic  compounds  the 
organization  is  affected  by  chemism.  The  animal  body  is 
alternately  driven  by  want  and  attracted  by  satisfaction, 
feelings  and  emotions  that  act  as  natural  energies  and  bind 
the  organism  together.  The  union  of  the  sexes  is  secured 
by  the  powerful  emotion  of  love.  The  aggregation  of  the 
family,  the  tribe,  the  nation,  the  race,  produces  religion  and 
is  sustained  by  it.  Whatever  promotes  the  aggregation  and 
organization  of  humanity  produces  the  emotion  of  religion. 
At  its  beginning  the  stimulus  of  religion  was  the  direst  super- 
stition, and  after  passing  through  supernaturalism  its  stim- 
ulus becomes  the  purest  morality;  for  pure  morality  alone 
can  effect  the  perfect  organization  of  the  human  race.  Eeli- 
gion  is  the  instinct  of  social  preservation,  as  love  is  the 
instinct  of  reproduction  of  the  animal  organism,  and  appetite 
and  hunger  the  instinct  of  self-preservation. 

Religion,  in  order  that  it  may  reach  perfection,  must  dis- 
card all  supernaturalism,  be  placed  on  a  scientific  basis,  be 
engendered  by  actual  service  to  the  race  instead  of  sacrifice 
to  an  imaginary  God.  The  beautiful  and  time-honored 
belief  in  a  supernatural  God  must  give  place  to  the  facts  of 
existence;  and  the  facts  will  show  humanity  a  greater 
necessity  for  racial  unity  and  racial  solidarity  than  this  great 
belief  has  done.  And  the  glorious  dream  of  immortality,  a 
supernatural  life  beyond  the  grave,  must  give  place  to  the 
truth  of  individual  mortality;  but  the  demonstration  of  the 
continuity  of  all  nature,  the  practical  immortality  of  the 
race,  the  realization  of  heaven  here  on  earth,  and  the  truth, 
will  be  more  satisfying  than  the  dream.  Energy  expended 
under  the  great  beliefs  of  God  and  immortality  cannot  be 
expended  as  economically  or  as  beautifully  as  under  the 
truth  of  naturalism ;  because  the  truth  is  the  closest  distance 
between  any  two  points,  the  easiest  over  which  mental  energy 
can  travel,  and  the  most  beautiful  thing  in  the  world.  The 
race  must  be  unified  on  the  theory  of  the  economic  expendi- 


NATURALISM  VERSUS  SUPERNATURALISM    105 

ture  of  energy,  and  religion  and  morality  must  be  exact 
corollaries  of  each  other,  and  all  of  the  fictitious  methods  of 
generating  religion  should  be  discarded,  such  as  a  belief  in 
a  supernatural  God,  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  prayer,  the 
means  of  grace,  and  the  ceremonies  of  religion  in  general, 
now  that  it  is  known  that  religion  has  for  its  true  correlate 
pure  morality. 

The  only  way  to  experience  true  religion  is  to  do  real  ser- 
vice to  the  race.  It  requires  no  priesthood,  no  ceremonies, 
but  the  living  of  our  wonderful  life  according  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  naturalism  as  elaborated  in  the  moral  and  social 
senses  of  our  race.  Man  ought  to  know  that  religion  is  an 
emotion  that  can  be  produced  by  innumerable  causes,  and 
he  should  seek  the  fundamental  cause,  anything  that  uni- 
fies, preserves  and  perfects  the  race,  all  summed  up  in  the 
words,  pure  morality,  and  he  should  make  it  the  basis,  the 
fundamental  thing  in  our  system  of  education. 

Living  in  this  age  of  material  plutocracy,  it  looks  as  if 
there  is  nothing  else  in  life  worth  working  for  but  wealth, 
still  under  it  all  and  running  through  it  all  is  a  vein  of 
true  religion,  and  humanity  is  becoming  unified,  socialized, 
more  and  more  every  day.  Naturalism  is  at  the  bottom  of 
our  wonderful  civilization,  and  it  will  inevitably  lead  human- 
ity into  the  light,  into  the  right. 

The  time  will  come  when  education  will  mean  more  than 
simply  to  train  the  intellect  and  the  body.  It  will  mean  to 
develop  the  moral  nature,  and  character  as  well.  Men 
then  will  not  be  so  anxious  to  acquire  wealth  as  to  use  it 
for  the  benefit  of  the  race,  and  there  will  be  honors  con-j 
f erred  for  being  good  as  well  as  being  great.  Happiness  will 
not  consist  in  being  happy  alone,  but  in  making  others 
happy ;  and  true  happiness  will  be  impossible  in  the  sight  of 
all  unhappiness.  Sympathy,  when  the  continuity  of  nature 
is  fully  grasped  by  the  race,  will  be  as  strong  as  feeling,  and 
the  pain  from  a  public  wrong  will  equal  the  pain  from  a  pri- 


106      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

vate  wrong.  Then  the  social  organization  will  be  an  organ- 
ism with  mutually  dependent  and  interdependent  parts, 
acting  in  mutual  cooperation,  rendering  service  for  service, 
the  object  of  all  will  be  the  object  of  each,  and  the  object 
of  each  will  be  the  object  of  all.  Eeligion  will  be  experienced 
by  all,  be  the  most  common  of  all  emotions  and  will  pro- 
duce the  most  exquisite  joy  possible  to  the  human  heart. 

Supernaturalism  has  served  its  day.     Man  is  ready  to  enter 
the  realm  of  reality.  '  • 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  EXPENDITURE  OF  ENERGY  CONTROLLED  BY  MIND:     THE 
FOURTH   LAW    OF   MOTION. 

I 

Probably,  immediately  following  the  stage  in  the  evolution 
of  life  and  mind,  as  seen  in  the  primates  below  man  to-day, 
there  was  less  progress  made  in  animal  development  than  at 
any  other  time  since  it  began.  Certain  it  is  that  no  other 
primate  except  man  has  ever  been  able  to  get  past  the  sheer 
individualism  of  animal  life  below  man  in  the  history  of 
creation ;  yet  in  all  kinds  of  animals  we  see  efforts  towards 
socialization ;  while  bees  and  ants  by  becoming  social  have 
almost  completely  lost  all  individuality,  a  form  of  society 
that  heretofore,  happily  for  us,  has  been  impossible  to 
humanity,  it  always  resulting  in  degeneracy,  decay  and 
extinction.  With  the  origination  of  the  individual  con- 
trolled by  mind  nature  seemed  to  have  paused  from  exhaus- 
tion. The  human  race  for  untold  ages  overran  the  earth  as 
animals  incapable  of  social  organization.  After  infinite 
efforts,  through  the  law  of  natural  selection  and  the  laws  of 
repetition,  at  last  some  fortunate  tribe  struck  upon  some 
form  of  social  life  which  initiated  the  social  regime  we  see  so 
highly  developed  to-day,  and  which  will  ultimately  end  in 
the  socialization  of  the  entire  race.  It  will  be  interesting  to 
look  at  man  simply  as  an  individual  although  it  is  almost  an 
impossibility  to  disassociate  his  individual  nature  from  his 
social  nature. 

All  the  energies  of  nature,  both  internal  and  external, 
before  the  dawn  of  life  and  mind,  followed  the  line  of  the 
least  resistance,  the  greatest  attraction,  in  their  expenditure; 

107 


108      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

but  instead  of  selecting  this  line  from  a  number  of  lines 
from  former  experiences  as  animals  do,  they  acted  from 
present  experience  alone,  blindly  opposed,  neutralized  and 
wasted  one  another,  following  the  third  law  of  motion,  that 
action  and  reaction  are  always  equal  and  opposite.  In  their 
blind  action,  the  external  energies,  in  discharging  the 
chemical  energies  of  protoplasm,  created  the  physical  senses 
to  guide  to  right  action  the  chemical  energies  they  liberated 
in  organisms,  and  ended  with  the  creation  of  the  intellect  in 
man,  which  not  only  controls  the  expenditure  of  the  ener- 
gies of  his  own  organism  but  also  directs  the  external  ener- 
gies of  nature  to  his  advantage.  This  is  the  first  great 
controlment — the  intellect  controlling  and  directing  the 
energies  of  the  animal  organism,  both  internal  and  external, 
and  the  blind  energies  of  nature  to  its  own  advantage.  It  is 
a  fourth  law  of  motion,  a  fourth  way  that  energy  expends 
itself  in  nature,  in  that  actions  do  not  follow  from  present 
stimuli  alone,  but  are  modified  by  inherited  forms  of 
expenditure,  instincts,  and  by  forms  originated  in  the  ani- 
mal's own  life,  ideas  and  concepts. 

The  fourth  law  of  motion  may  be  stated  in  the-  following 
language:  To  every  action  there  is  always  a  reaction;  how- 
ever, it  is  never  equal  and  opposite,  but  instead  the  reaction 
is  controlled  by  the  animal  acted  upon,  it  expending  the 
energy  of  the  reaction  along  the  line  of  the. least  resistance 
selected  by  itself  from  its  instincts  and  ideas,  residua  of 
former  experience,  the  ensuing  action  being  exclusively  for 
its  own  advantage  and  benefit.  As  the  second  and  third 
laws  of  motion  are  modifications  of  the  first  law,  so  the 
fourth  law  of  motion  is  a  modification  of  the  third  law,  that 
is,  to  every  action  there  is  always  an  equal  action  in  an  oppo- 
site direction.  In  the  fourth  law  of  motion,  instead  of  the 
reaction  to  a  stimulus  being  equal  and  opposite,  as  in  phys- 
ical nature,  it  is  modified  by  the  animal's  inherited  expe- 
rience, instincts  and  ideas,  forms  of  reaction,  which  furnish 


THE   FOURTH   LAW   OF   MOTION  109 

the  least  possible  resistance  to  the  expenditure  of  energy, 
and  thus  introduce  the  notion  of  economy  and  purpose  into 
nature,  something  hitherto  wanting.  Or  the  three  laws  of 
motion  may  be  stated  in  the  fundamental  law  of  the  expendi- 
ture of  energy  in  nature,  that  is,  that  all  energy  in  nature 
always  expends  itself  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance 
determined  by  the  contending  energies.  The  fourth  law  of 
the  expenditure  of  energy  differs  from  this  fundamental  law 
by  determining  the  expenditure  of  energy  by  inherited  expe- 
rience in  the  form  of  instincts,  ideas  and  concepts,  instead 
of  by  the  blind  battling  of  natural  energies.  My  exposition 
probably  would  have  been  clearer  had  I  called  energy,  as 
expended  by  this  fundamental  law,  the  first  law  of  motion, 
expenditure  by  the  intellect  the  second,  expenditure  by  the 
moral  sense  the  third,  and  expenditure  by  the  social  sense 
as  the  fourth  law  of  motion ;  but  not  wishing  to  vary  the 
terminology  of  my  predecessors  too  much,  I  have  started 
where  they  left  off,  deeming  it  one  of  the  banes  of  philosophy 
to  be  eternally  making  new  terminologies. 

The  fourth  law  of  motion  substitutes  one  form  of  the 
expenditure  of  energy  for  another;  it  substitutes  past  expe- 
rience in  the  form  of  instincts  and  ideas  for  present  expe- 
rience in  the  form  of  stimuli.  The  fourth  law  of  motion  has 
reached  approximate  perfection  in  man,  making  him  a 
perfect  individual,  that  is,  a  being  who  controls,  through  his 
mind,  all  of  his  own  energies  and  the  energies  of  nature 
about  him  to  his  own  advantage. 

II 

« 

The  individual  is  man  as  nature  left  him  before  he  orig- 
inated society.  His  function,  which  is  the  function  of  the 
intellect,  is  to  control  and  direct  the  opposing,  neutralizing 
and  wasting  energies  of  nature  to  one  purpose,  the  self- 
interest  of  the  individual  as  an  individual,  so  that  the  most 
powerful  individual  may  be  produced  by  combining  both  the 


110      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

internal  and  the  'external  energies  of  nature  into  one  being. 
And  this  being  was  primitive  man. 

Man  to-day  is  essentially  a  social  being,  and  was  so  long 
before  he  had  evolved  into  the  highest  primate,  but  society 
did  not  begin  until  Pithecanthropus  erectus  began  placing 
external  energies  in  service  to  himself;  then  it  was  that  he 
began  placing  his  fellow  men  in  service  also ;  and  from  this 
sheer  individualism  grew  indirectly  man's  social  forms  of 
to-day.  If  the  animal  kingdom  was  as  warlike  at  the  advent 
of  primitive  man  as  to-day,  it  is  doubtful  if  he  could  have 
survived.  It  is  probable  that  animal  life  was  pretty  much  a 
happy  family  with  the  exception  of  the  carnivora  and  it  is 
doubtful  if  they  were  so  powerful  and  fierce  as  they  are 
to-day.  The  domestic  animals  did  as  much  towards  their 
own  domestication  probably  as  man  did  for  them. 

Wonderful  as  he  is,  the  achievements  of  the  individual, 
independent  of  society,  are  small.  In  fact,  if  man  had  not 
been  a  being  capable  of  social  organization,  there  would  be 
no  civilization,  or  civilization  would  be  a  thing  of  insignifi- 
cant proportions.  There  are  but  few  animals,  in  the  strug- 
gle for  existence,  which  do  not  avail  themselves  of  some  social 
support  as  supplemental  to  their  mental  powers,  and  man's 
greatest  merit  is  not  his  intellectuality  but  his  social  and 
moral  nature ;  for,  so  far  in  evolution,  it  is  to  his  morality  and 
sociality  that  his  development  is  due,  and  will  be  more  so  in 
the  future.  I  doubt  if  there  is  an  animal  that  is  completely 
unsocial;  for  the  most  unsocial  of  animals  sacrifice  some 
part  of  their  lives  for  the  species  by  begetting  and  rearing 
offspring.  Had  man  not  been  susceptible  of  social  organiza- 
tion, he  would  have  accomplished  little,  and  would,  no 
doubt,  have  been  supplanted  by  some  other  animal  in  the 
struggle  for  existence  that  was  social,  as  he  himself  crowded 
out  of  existence  all  of  his  competitors.  While  intellect  can 
modify  the  three  laws  of  motion  to  human  advantage,  yet 
intellect  alone  could  never  have  utilized  all  the  energies  of 


THE   FOURTH   LAW   OF   MOTION  111 

nature  as  humanity  does  to-day,  the  chief  of  all,  the  energies 
of  society  itself,  still  so  wastefully  expended  for  the  want  of 
social  control.  Intellect  alone  could  not  have  originated 
cultivated  plants,  nor  could  it  have  improved  the  domestic 
animals  as  social  man  has  done;  for  without  the  civilizing 
influence  of  association  man  would  be  so  ruthless  the  world 
would  be  a  battle  of  force  and  cunning,  the  individual 
against  all  life,  and  all  life  against  him.  Intellect  alone 
could  not  have  originated  fine  art,  nor  language,  nor  science, 
nor  industry,  to  say  nothing  of  government,  religion  and 
morality. 

Wonderful  is  the  story  of  humanity.  It  will  never  be 
told.  We  appear  upon  the  scene  of  the  drama  with  the 
beginning  shrouded  in  mystery,  the  development  of  the 
story  marred  by  an  inartistic  arrangement  of  the  materials  so 
that  one  can  scarcely  follow  the  narrative,  the  denouement, 
the  orientation,  democratization  and  socialization  of  the  race 
yet  to  come.  He  who  reads  history  aright,  he  who  looks  at 
science  aright,  can  take  in  this  vast  phenomenon,  look  at  it 
as  a  whole,  see  what  it  is,  have  a  perfect  understanding  of 
it,  the  final  product  of  the  savage's  dream,  the  barbarian's 
superstition,  the  classic's  mythology,  the  Oriental's  theology, 
the  modern's  philosophy,  each  being  but  an  adumbration  of 
the  other  and  forerunners  of  our  final  organon,  which  gives 
a  true  concept  of  man's  place  in  nature  and  teaches  him  his 
whole  duty  to  himself  and  to  his  fellow  man. 

Ill 

Nature  is  not  choice  in  its  means.  All  will  readily  admit 
that  a  society  based  on  intelligence  and  morality  is  the  only 
true  society,  for  it  alone  can  expend  all  energy  with  perfect 
economy;  but,  if  nature  cannot  directly  originate  a  society 
based  on  true  principles,  it  originates  one  based  on  force 
and  cunning,  and  gradually  and  indirectly  evolves  one 
based  on  intelligence  and  morality.  This  is  what  has 


112      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

occurred  in  nature.  It  is  with  human  energy  as  with  phys- 
ical energy.  All  energy  in  society  takes  the  line  of  the  least 
resistance  determined  by  ideals,  laws,  institutions;  if  they 
improve,  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  improves,  and  it  is 
by  this  simple  means  that  human  society,  following  the  laws 
of  repetition  and  the  law  of  natural  selection,  has  been 
evolved.  If  man  cannot  be  evolved  by  his  virtues,  he  is 
evolved  through  his  vices.  The  virtues  are  the  social 
expenditure  of  energy,  the  most  economical ;  the  vices  are 
the  individual  expenditure  of  energy,  the  least  economical. 
If  altruism  cannot  control,  egoism  can.  By  taking  the  indi- 
vidual method  the  way  is  longer,  but  the  end  is  none  the  less 
sure,  for  ultimately  the  individual  expenditure  of  energy 
reaches  the  same  goal  as  the  social  expenditure  of  energy,  only 
the  individual  expenditure  accomplishes  its  end  by  waste, 
while  the  social  expenditure  accomplishes  its  end  by  econ- 
omy. Nature  and  society  always  start  out  with  the  circuitous 
route  to  accomplish  functions  indirectly  which  cannot  be 
accomplished  directly;  and  this  is  due  to  the  fundamental 
fact  that  there  is  no  mind  in  nature,  no  morality  in  society, 
that  the  contending  energies  develop  their  own  control,  which 
leads  them  to  perfection ;  in  the  case  of  the  intellect  it  being 
produced  by  the  energies  of  nature,  and  in  the  case  of 
morality  it  being  produced  by  the  energies  of  society. 

Human  energy,  feelings  and  emotions,  follows  the  line  of 
the  least  resistance,  the  line  of  the  greatest  economy  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  individual,  and  always  expends 
itself  in  the  same  variable  way ;  but  when  human  energy  is 
unguided  by  society,  as  it  was  with  primitive  man,  and  the 
logical  and  rank  individualist  to-day,  from  the  point  of  view 
of  society,  while  it  ultimately  works  to  social  benefit  (because 
disguise  it  as  we  may,  we  are  really  units  in  the  social  organ- 
ism and  are  all  working  to  the  same  end,  only  under  different 
ideas,  or  egos),  yet  it  always  wastes  itself  in  neutralization 
and  opposition  as  do  the  physical  energies  in  nature  when 


THE   FOURTH   LAW   OF   MOTION  113 

uncontrolled  by  the  individual.  If  the  expenditure  of 
human  energies  in  society  did  not  end  in  the  creation  of 
moral  and  social  senses,  which  regulate  the  expenditure  of 
human  energy  just  as  intellect  in  the  individual  regulates  the 
expenditure  of  physical  energies  in  nature  and  cause  the 
individual  to  expend  his  energies  in  the  most  economic  man- 
ner possible  from  the  point  of  view  of  society,  then  mankind 
would  have  always  been  an  animal,  such  as  we  see  the  pri- ' 
mates  below  him  to-day.  But,  happily  for  us,  this  was  not 
the  case. 

In  the  history  of  the  race  those  tribes  which  expended 
their  energies  in  the  most  economic  manner  possible  sur- 
vived in  the  struggle  for  existence  and  perpetuated  their 
kind.  The  same  is  true  of  nations.  The  struggle  for  exist- 
ence in  nature  is  a  struggle  between  units,  the  individual 
being  the  unit  in  the  great  struggle  for  existence  in  nature ; 
tribes,  nations  and  civilizations  being  the  units  in  the  strug- 
gle for  existence  in  the  race,  and  it  is  one  of  the  bitterest  in 
all  nature  and  is  carried  on  irretrievably  to-day.  It  was  by 
the  severest  struggle  that  the  human  race  passed  from  the 
individualism  of  savagery  to  the  socialization  of  our  civiliza- 
tion. What  the  race  really  was  before  the  dawn  of  civiliza- 
tion is  only  to  be  conjectured  from  the  sheer  individualism  of 
our  criminal  classes,  and  what  we  observe  among  animals 
and  savages. 

IV 

The  great  laws  of  human  development,  as  of  all  devel- 
opment, are  the  laws  of  repetition  and  the  law  of  nat- 
ural selection.  Whatever  helped  to  adapt  man  to  his 
environment  was  preserved ;  the  internal  law  of  repetition 
preserving  the  original  form,  the  external  law  of  repetition 
modifying  and  adapting  it  to  the  environment.  Variation 
in  organic  forms  is  not  left  to  chance,  but  it  is  initiated  by 
the  environment  and  perpetuated  by  heredity,  the  internal 


114      THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF   HUMANITY 

law  of  repetition.     Whatever  is  inferior  succumbs  to  the 
superior  by  the  law  of  natural  selection. 

The  individual  is  able  to  control  the  energies  of  nature 
with  his  intellect,  directing  them  to  his  own  advantage, 
but  when  it  comes  to  utilizing .  the  energies  of  society, 
that  is,  using  human  energies  for  a  social  purpose,  he  sig- 
nally fails.  Only  for  the  fact  that  selfishness  itself  indirectly, 
blindly  and  wastefully  works  for  social  organization  by  indi- 
vidual means,  civilization  could  never  have  been  developed. 
This  is  the  doctrine  of  individualism,  which  teaches  that 
individualism  is  the  final  philosophy,  because  it  was  the 
first.  Individualism  makes  selfishness  the  basis  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  if  it  alone  was  to  act  and  humanity  was  not 
capable  of  any  higher  method  of  expending  energy,  then  a 
civilization  in  which  human  energy  will  be  expended  with 
perfect  economy  will  never  be  realized,  and  the  hope  of 
social  democracy  is  a  baseless  myth.  There  is  no  intelligence 
in  nature.  "We  shall  see  in  our  investigation  that  whenever, 
owing  to  lack  of  social  intelligence  or  social  sense  or  lack  of 
partial  or  complete  social  organization,  human  energy  cannot 
be  expended  as  economically  by  the  tribe,  the  nation,  and  it 
can  be  so  expended  by  individuals  and  classes,  then  the  indi- 
vidual method  is  adopted  for  the  time  being — only,  however, 
to  be  discarded  whenever  the  moral  and  social  senses  are 
sufficiently  developed  to  expend  human  energy  in  the  most 
economic  manner  possible.  This  is  illustrated  in  the  origina- 
tion of  property,  purely  a  product  of  individualism,  but  now 
upon  the  eve  of  socialization.  Again  there  are  other  func- 
tions that  are  purely  social  and  always  have  been  so,  as,  for 
example,  the  origin  and  development  of  language. 

The  individual  while  avoiding  conflict  with  nature  through 
his  intellect,  invites  conflict  by  his  intellect  when  dealing 
with  his  fellow  man.  This  is  especially  true  of  man  in  his 
collective  actions.  Through  his  intellect  the  individual 
escapes  conflict  with  nature  only  to  get  into  greater  conflict 


THE   FOURTH   LAW   OF   MOTION  115 

through  it  with  his  own  kind.  The  individual  can  control 
natural  energies  through  his  intellect,  but  he  cannot  control 
social  energies  so  that  they  will  be  expended  in  the  most 
economic  manner  possible.  The  individual  controls  social 
energies  the  same  as  he  controls  natural  energies,  and  thus 
makes  the  energies  of  the  social  organism  expend  themselves, 
not  for  the  good  of  all,  but  for  the  good  of  a  few.  The 
individual  through  his  intellect  expends  the  energies  of 
nature  in  the  most  economic  manner  possible,  but  with  the 
energies  of  society  he  opposes  force  with  force,  cunning  with 
cunning,  and  dissipates  the  greater  part  of  human  energy  in 
the  direst  waste.  Happily,  as  the  environment  developed  in 
the  individual  senses,  then  intellect  to  enable  him  to  expend 
his  energies  economically,  and  the  more  successfully  to  cope 
with  nature  and  to  use  its  energies  to  his  own  advantage;  so 
man's  contact  with  his  fellow  man  in  society  developed  in 
him  moral  and  social  senses,  which  enable  him  to  expend 
his  social  energies  in  the  most  economical  manner  possible, 
whereby,  when  they  reach  perfection,  he  can  live  in  peace 
and  harmony  with  the  whole  race  and  expend  all  energy 
to  the  benefit  of  the  race  as  a  whole.  It  is  true  that  the 
nations  of  the  earth  to-day  give  us  little  room  to  think 
that  in  the  immediate  future  they  will  give  up  settling 
their  destiny  by  the  struggle  for  existence  of  competi- 
tion, the  controlment  of  the  earth  by  the  arbitrament  of 
war, — that  is,  cease  dissipating  their  energy  in  opposition  and 
neutralization,  instead  of  using  all  of  it  through  cooperation 
and  organization  in  the  most  economical  manner  possible; 
still,  the  tendency  of  things  is  to  cooperation  and  peace,  to 
the  government  of  the  race  by  intelligence,  and  if  religion 
were  based  on  morality,  it  would  soon  be  realized.  The 
growing  economic  dependence  of  nations  upon  one  another, 
of  the  race  upon  its  component  parts,  will  ultimately  end  in 
universal  cooperation,  the  abolition  of  war,  the  cosmopolitan- 
ization  of  capital,  the  ultimate  socialization  of  the  race, 


116      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

even  if  religion  fails  to  gain  its  pristine  influence  upon  the 
race  from  the  lack  of  intellectual  sanction;  for  when  the 
mart  declares  for  peace,  the  tardy  theologian  will  echo 
the  cry,  and  we  shall  enter  upon  a  new  era,  the  socialization 
of  humanity. 


individual  control  of  social  energy  could  never  have  devel- 
oped civilization  as  we  see  it  to-day;  for  the  individual's 
control  of  social  energies  invariably  ends  in  degeneracy, 
decay  and  death.  Sometimes  it  takes  centuries  to  reach  its 
acme,  but  history  shows  that  invariably  all  inequality, 
inequality  of  position,  of  power,  caste,  wealth  or  learning, 
has  ended  in  the  destruction  of  the  class  possessing  it,  and 
often  of  the  entire  nation  permitting  it,  for  the  disease  of 
degeneracy  permeates  the  whole  nation  in  which  it  acts. 

Happily  for  the  human  race,  man's  primitive  ancestor  was 
not  simply  an  intellectual  being,  but  one  singularly  fitted  for 
social  organization  as  our  civilization  attests.  The  dominant 
races  to-day  are  probably  as  warlike,  if  not  more  so,  than 
the  dominant  races  at  any  other  period  of  human  history. 
The  development  we  see  to-day  in  civilization  is  not  the 
result  of  one  season's  love,  nor  one  year's  peace;  but,  instead, 
of  countless  centuries  of  conflict,  infinite  essays  of  ebbing 
and  flowing  humanity,  pushing  this  way,  pulling  that  way, 
ceaseless  migrations  from  the  south  to  the  north,  from  east 
to  west,  persistent  intermingling  of  blood  and  ideas,  the 
spending  of  centuries  in  following  some  ignis  fat uus  of  the 
mind,  never  being  in  a  hurry  to  do  what  is  right  and  never 
doing  anything  sensible  because  it  is  sensible,  stagnating  as  a 
dammed-up  stream,  then  bursting  as  a  flood  in  revolution, 
even  making  the  vagaries  of  the  insane  fundamental  philos- 
ophy— what  an  infinite  waste  of  human  energy!  And  think 
of  humanity  and  its  future.  All  of  the  paths  yet  to  be  tried 
before  mankind  reaches  the  goal  of  perfect  adaptation  to  its 


THE   FOURTH   LAW   OF   MOTION  117 

environment,  before  it  reaches  socialization!  Dramatic 
indeed  is  the  history  of  humanity  when  looked  at  in  the 
light  of  a  natural  phenomenon,  with  its  futile  dreams,  its 
vain  but  uplifting  hopes,  its  blind  faith,  its  endless  strug- 
gles, its  hopeless  quests,  its  pitiless  situation,  its  wonderful 
adventures,  its  marvelous  development,  its  sublime  destiny ; 
and  yet  withal  its  final  approachment  to  democratization 
and  socialization ! 

It  is  wonderful  to  contemplate  even  in  outline  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  race  that  have  been  handed  down  to  us  in  his- 
tory, tradition  and  the  debris  of  former  ages — such  as 
mechanical  inventions,  which  harness  the  physical  energies ; 
the  fine  arts  which  give  expression  to  the  romantic  side  of 
the  emotions,  the  cultivation  of  plants  and  the  domestica- 
tion of  animals,  the  invention  of  language  and  printing,  not 
to  mention  the  more  social  institutions  of  government,  the 
school,  the  church  and  religious  institutions.  How  many 
centuries  ago  has  it  been  since  man  invented  the  wheel  and 
axle,  and  who  was  the  unknown  genius  to  originate  it?  The 
wheel  and  axle,  that  wonderful  form  of  locomotion,  which 
nature  was  incapable  of  originating  directly,  choosing 
through  necessity  instead  the  clumsy  device  of  having  an 
animal  fall  and  catch  itself  and  thus  push  itself  along  as  we 
do  in  locomotion!  Who  was  it  who  invented  fire'  or  first 
utilized  it  in  cooking  food?  An  art  of  incalculable  benefit 
to  the  race!  Who  knows  but  the  first  person  (doubtless  a 
woman)  who  set  out  a  plant  was  martyred  for  attempting  to 
improve  nature !  Socrates  was  poisoned  by  the  Athenians 
for  attempting  to  improve  men !  The  unknown  person  who 
discovered  the  use  of  iron  did  the  most  for  the  race  of  any 
human  being.  Perhaps  it  was  Neter,  the  ancient  god  of  the 
Egyptians,  whose  hierographical  symbol  is  the  ax,  doubtless 
the  first  implement  made  from  iron.  How  crudely  every- 
thing has  grown  up  in  the  life  of  man.  The  tom-tom  and 
the  gong  are  but  the  beginnings  of  our  modern  orchestra. 


118      THE   SOCIALIZATION  OF   HUMANITY 

A  rolling  log  is  the  beginning  idea  of  the  modern  locomotive ; 
the  floating  log  of  the  modern  ship.  We  know  gods  did  not 
make  these  things.  Each  age  for  millions  of  years  added  its 
improvements  according  to  the  law  of  external  repetition  and 
the  result  was  repeated  with  the  improvements  by  the  law  of 
internal  repetition,  and  the  law  of  natural  selection  acted 
over  all.  Nothing  has  been  lost,  until  to-day  we  see  won- 
ders God-like  in  their  mechanism.  It  is  so  of  everything 
about  us.  It  is  so  of  our  ideas.  Everything  can  be  traced 
back  to  our  primitive  ancestors,  when  they  began  taking  de- 
light in  being  social  and  began  experimenting  with  the  energies 
of  nature  and  their  own  energies  from  a  social  point  of  view. 
All  of  this  is  in  the  dim  past — unwritten  history  of  the 
individual  in  his  vast  achievements  on  earth.  No  one  man 
ever  accomplished  much.  The  individual  is  strong  not  of 
himself,  but  because  he  is  capable  of  organization,  and 
through  organization  to  bequeath  his  work  to  the  race  to  be 
perpetuated  for  all  time.  What  would  life  have  amounted 
to,  after  it  had  been  produced,  had  it  not  been  capable  of 
living  forever  through  the  simple  process  of  death  and  repro- 
duction? It  is  in  this  way  that  life  not  only  preserves  deli- 
cate compounds,  but  constantly  makes  them  more  delicate, 
until  to-day  man  is  capable  of  knowing  really  what  he  is  by 
this  simple  return  of  a  thing  upon  itself  we  call  mind.  So 
of  institutions, — they,  too,  live  on  and  on  by  metamorphosis ; 
institutions  that  we  see  to-day  may  have  been  so  crude  in 
their  beginning  that  all  likeness  to  their  finished  product  is 
lost;  the  state,  for  example.  It  is  to  the  organization  of 
individuals,  society,  that  is  due  the  great  achievement  of 
the  race ;  for  without  organization  man  would  be  an  helpless 
animal,  poor,  feeble-minded  and  pitiful.  Such  is  the  con- 
dition of  most  of  the  animal  families  on  earth.  It  is  almost 
impossible  to  conceive  the  part  of  our  lives  that  is  due  to  the 
individual  and  the  part  that  is  due  to  the  race;  but  we  can 
get  some  idea  by  glancing  at  the  condition  of  unsocial  sav- 


THE   FOURTH   LAW   OF  MOTION  119 

ages  and  seeing,  too,  how  helpless  the  rest  of  the  animal 
creation  is,  chiefly  due  to  lack  of  social  organization.  Had 
the  carnivora  the  power  of  combining  in  social  organization, 
it  would  certainly  have  exterminated  man  before  he  devel- 
oped weapons  to  contend  with  it.  Imagine  an  army  of  lions 
and  tigers  with  the  organization  and  discipline  of  men, — 
would  not  they  even  exterminate  us  to-day?  How  happily 
for  us  that  man  is  the  only  truly  social  animal  found  on 
earth,  and  that  primitive  man,  with  his  cannibalism,  held 
within  his  savagery  the  seeds  of  socialization  of  the  entire 
race,  to  be  realized  in  the  coming  centuries! 

Man  began  with  individual  democracy ;  he  will  end  with 
social  democracy.  Social  energy  can  be  expended  in  the 
most  economic  manner  only  through  the  democratic  state  or 
society.  It  is  impossible  to  organize  society  on  any  other 
healthful  basis.  Greece  tried  it,  half  free  and  half  slave; 
Eome,  half  noble  and  half  plebeian;  modern  society  in 
Europe  has  its  privileged  classes  and  proletarian;  in  the 
United  States  we  have  a  government  of  the  privileged  capi- 
talist that  will  have  to  give  way  to  a  government  of  the 
people,  for  the  people  and  by  the  people,  a  government  in 
which  all  just  power  is  derived  from  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned, a  government  with  equal  rights  to  all  and  special 
privileges  to  none,  a  government  in  which  opportunity  will 
be  equal  to  all  and  every  one  will  have  economic  freedom, 
and  the  greatest  happiness  to  the  greatest  number  will  be 
realized.  This  is  the  social  democracy j)f  the  future. 

VI 

Nature  outside  of  human  life  is  unmoral.  It  not  only 
rains  upon  the  just  and  the  unjust  alike,  but  nature  rewards 
the  just  and  the  unjust  alike.  Morality  is  nowhere  found 
outside  of  human  life.  Primitive  man  knew  nothing  of  it. 
He  lived  by  his  wits  alone.  The  only  protection  primitive 
man  had  was  his  cunning.  He  had  all  of  the  atrocity  of  the 


120      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

carnivora  and  all  of  the  cunning  of  the  primate.  Vice  was 
his  only  life.  Nothing  shows  the  human  race  to  be  a  god- 
less product  of  nature  so  much  as  the  contemplation  of  the 
struggles,  sufferings  and  hardships  of  primitive  humanity 
when  controlled  exclusively  by  the  principles  of  individual- 
ism. It  is  appalling,  horrifying,  epic!  And  nothing  so 
swells  the  heart  with  hope  as  the  knowledge  that  man  with 
all  of  his  savagery,  unaided,  unfriended  by  God  or  nature, 
has  achieved  his  present  high  development  by  his  own  untir- 
ing, persistent  efforts!  So  far  as  nature  is  concerned,  it 
being  unmoral,  the  immoral  individual,  if  undetected 
and  uneducated  by  society,  or  if  living  outside  of  society,  as 
the  primitive  individual  lived,  instead  of  being  handicapped 
by  his  immorality  is  assisted  by  it  in  his  ventures.  This  is 
the  reason  that  even  with  us  to-day,  owing  to  imperfect 
moral  and  social  senses,  judiciously  dishonest  individuals 
more  often  succeed  than  plain  honest  ones.  Unmorality  is 
the  method  of  nature,  the  method  that  made  the  individual 
what  he  was  before  the  origin  of  society,  the  method 
of  expending  energy  that  causes  him  to  take  advantage 
of  every  other  thing  and  being  in  nature  and  use  them  for 
his  own  advantage.  And  only  for  the  fact  that  individual- 
ism, let  it  be  absolute,  works  to  social  benefit  indirectly, 
society  to-day  could  never  have  been  originated.  Bat 
because  individualism  ultimately  ends  in  a  form  of  society  is 
no  reason  that  the  methods  of  individualism  should  be  fol- 
lowed forever.  The  method  of  individualism  is  the  method 
of  expending  energy  determined  by  the  contending  energies 
(individuals  in  this  case),  and  is  just  as  great  a  waste  in  the 
expenditure  of  human  energy  as  the  expenditure  of  energy  in 
nature  was  before  life  and  mind  were  originated.  It  is 
destined  to  be  supplanted  by  the  social  expenditure  of  energy, 
which  determines  the  expenditure  of  all  energy  by  ideals, 
knowledge,  laws,  institution,  the  moral  and  social  senses,  and 
which  is  just  as  great  an  improvement  upon  the  expenditure 


THE   FOUBTH   LAW  OF  MOTION  121 

of  individual  energy  as  the  fourth  law  of  motion  (the  intellect) 
is  upon  the  expenditure  of  the  energies  of  inorganic  nature. 
The  social  expenditure  of  energy  is  inevitably  bound  to 
occur,  for  the  energies  of  nature  always  and  at  all  times  take 
the  line  of  the  least  resistance  whenever  it  has  been  deter- 
mined by  any  given  organization  from  physical  nature  to 
human  society. 

No  doubt  primitive  man  lived  for  ages  simply  as  an  indi- 
vidual, depending  upon  his  intellectuality  as  a  means  of 
maintaining  his  existence,  being  incapable  of  forming  any 
social  organization.  His  great  intellectuality  can  be 
explained  on  no  other  grounds.  Had  man  been  strongly 
social  at  his  origination  he  would  in  all  probability  never 
have  been  so  intellectual,  and  might  have  developed  a  form 
of  society  similar  to  ants  and  bees,  society  by  the  moral  sense 
alone;  for  such  a  form  of  society  is  only  compatible  with  low 
intellectuality;  but  primitive  man's  great  intellectuality, 
secured  by  his  ultra  individualism,  has  ever  kept  him  from 
such  an  inferior  form  of  society  and  will  do  so  for  all  time 
to  come,  although  great  individuals  and  classes  have  always 
attempted  to  make  the  social  organism  one  in  which  the 
great  mass  of  individuals  are  the  workers,  producers,  and 
the  ruling  classes  alone  are  permitted  to  live  in  the  sense  of 
being  perfectly  independent,  having  the  opportunity  to 
realize  all  of  their  hopes,  ambitions  and  destiny.  But 
owing  to  the  innate  democracy  of  the  human  race,  such  a 
form  of  society  has  always  ended  and  will  always  end  in 
degeneracy,  decay  and  death. 

Man  owes  his  great  intellectuality  to  individualism,  because 
it  must  have  taken  a  wonderfully  acute  intellect  for  primitive 
man  to  have  maintained  himself  unaided  by  society  in  tbe 
struggle  for  existence  in  nature ;  but  it  will  be  to  society,  his 
moral  and  social  nature,  that  he  will  owe  his  perfection,  at 
which  time  he  will  utilize  his  wonderfully  produced  intel- 
lect to  social  advantage,  it  being  purified  by  an  acute  moral 


122      THE  SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

sense.  Such  is  nature's  blind,  roundabout  way  of  doing 
things. 

Morality  is  the  method  of  expending  energy  according  to 
the  ideals,  laws,  institutions  of  society  created  by  the  moral 
and  social  senses,  the  method  that  forbids  one  individual 
taking  advantage  of  another,  the  method  that  forbids  the 
individual  taking  advantage  of  society,  the  method  of 
expending  energy  that  will  ultimately  perfect  the  individual 
by  causing  his  immoral  individual  energies  to  flow  into  social 
channels,  reducing  the  conflict  of  individual  with  individual 
to  the  minimum,  by  adopting  the  rule  of  rendering  service 
for  service  the  race  over.  The  moral  and  social  senses 
guide,  control  and  conserve  the  energies  of  the  individual  as 
the  individual  guides,  controls  and  conserves  the  energies  of 
nature,  causing  them  to  flow  into  channels  beneficial  to  the 
individual  and  society. 

Eight  and  wrong  are  purely  numau  concepts  of  expending 
human  energy  and  have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with 
nature  outside  of  human  life.  Morality  is  purely  a  product 
of  society,  and  has  by  no  means  reached  its  highest  develop- 
ment, but  is  destined  to  reach  it  just  as  inevitably  as  all 
energy  takes  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  when  it  is  once 
determined;  morality  being  that  expenditure  of  human 
energy  which  results  in  the  greatest  possible  economy  from 
the  point  of  view  of  society.  What  we  call  evil  in  civiliza- 
tion is  simply  the  method  of  individuals  in  expending  their 
energies  unguided  by  the  moral  and  social  senses,  and  from 
the  point  of  view  of  society,  it  is  simply  waste  of  energy 
through  neutralization  and  opposition,  conflict,  competition, 
war,  vice,  instead  of  cooperation,  coordination  and  organiza- 
tion. Evil  in  civilization  is  caused  by  the  expenditure  of 
hnman  energies  according  to  human  nature  and  not  accord- 
ing to  society.  The  waste  of  energy,  through  neutralization 
and  opposition,  when  expended  according  to  individualism  is 
evil:  although  in  the  end  it  results  in  social  benefit,  yet 


THE  FOUKTH   LAW   OF  MOTION  123 

it  is  at  the  greatest  possible  consumption  of  energy.  To  do 
wrong  in  society  is  to  act  natural,  act  as  original  man  acted 
before  the  moral  and  social  senses  were  originated.  To  do 
right  is  to  live  according  to  the  moral  and  social  senses. 
The  waste  of  energy  through  neutralization  and  opposition 
when  individuals  expend  their  ^energies  purely  according  to 
intellect,  cunning,  disregarding  the  moral  and  social  senses, 
is  evil,  although  it  may  be  perfectly  lawful.  Human  energy 
expended  according  to  the  methods  of  society,  the  moral  and 
social  senses,  is  morality.  There  is  no  other. 

But  the  human  mind  is  haunted  with  the  notion  that 
things  of  themselves  are  not  self-supporting ;  that  they  must 
be  upheld  by  an  exterior  Power  or  else  they  will  cease  to  be ; 
that  something  occult  is  back  of  nature,  back  of  society, 
back  of  everything.  All  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
individual  himself  is  dependent  upon  society  for  all  he  is  or 
hopes  to  be ;  that  it  is  God  to  him,  in  the  sense  that  the 
facts  that  make  him  think  there  is  a  God  are  produced  by 
society,  God  thus  being  a  symbol  of  society 

The  theory  of  things  that  the  universe  is  controlled  by  an 
external  Power  is  due  to  the  fact  that  man  himself  is  so 
controlled,  not  by  God  but  by  society,  and  this  notion  of 
universal  control  is  a  kind  of  anthropomorphism.  Nature  is 
as  it  is  simply  because  it  is  impossible  under  given  conditions 
for  it  to  be  otherwise.  As  the  conditions  change,  through 
the  universal  process,  the  eternal  adjustment  of  radiant  and 
gravitant  energies  of  the  universe  to  each  other,  nature  here 
on  earth  will  change;  and  as  man  can  control  conditions,  so 
can  he  control  nature  and  himself ;  and  as  society  can  con- 
trol conditions,  so  can  it  control  nature,  man  and  itself. 
The  trouble  with  primitive  man  was,  that  in  his  theory  of 
things  he  drew  upon  his  imagination  instead  of  upon  the 
facts,  and  that  is  the  trouble  with  us  to-day.  We  still  look 
at  nature  and  society  allegorically  despite  the  fact  of  the 
wonderful  scientific  knowledge  of  to-day.  Instead  of 


124      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

morality  being  God-given,  it  is  society-given;  and  instead  of 
nature  being  the  product  of  a  God,  it  is  a  self-adjusting, 
self -regulating  and  self-sufficing  organization  with  every 
determining  factor  within  itself  and  open  to  our  observa- 
tion, study  and  investigation.  The  time  will  come  when 
the  mind  of  man,  the  acquired  and  inherited  representations 
of  nature  and  society,  will  be  sufficiently  developed  for 
man  to  see  through  nature  and  society  as  clearly  as 
he  now  sees  through  an  art  product,  trace  the  origin  and 
development  of  all  of  the  laws  of  nature,  the  origination  of 
all  of  its  organisms  and  their  development,  from  the  primal 
mist  to  the  social  organism ;  then  all  nature  will  be  under- 
stood and  will  be  subject  to  man  and  society  by  conquest, 
and  the  true  greatness  of  what  the  matter  and  energies  of 
the  universe  are  capable  of  attaining  will  be  realized. 

VII 

Man  has  been  acted  upon  by  two  kinds  of  energy:  phys- 
ical energy,  which  adapted  him  to  nature,  and  psychical 
energy,  human  feelings  and  emotions,  which  adapted  him  to 
society.  In  nature  energies  are  wild,  uncontrolled  and  waste 
themselves  in  blind  dissipation.  After  countless  ages,  they 
developed  in  man  his  senses,  then  his  intellect  and  emotions. 
Man,  by  his  intellect,  controlled  the  energies  of  nature,  guided 
them  to  his  own  advantage,  harnessed  them  in  machines  and 
made  them  work  for  him.  But  man's  own  feelings  and  emo- 
tions, too  were  wild  and  uncontrolled,  wasted  themselves 
in  blind  opposition  and  senseless  conflict — sheer  individual- 
ism. This  is  the  condition  of  primitive  man.  Out  of  this  great 
interminable  waste  of  energy  and  conflict  grew  human  society. 

Social  control  began  in  an  infinitesimal  way,  such  as  the 
cooperation  of  animals  when  they  attack  a  common  enemy, 
was  repeated  by  internal  repetition  and  then  again  modified 
by  external  repetition,  as  necessity  drove  human  beings  more 
and  more  to  cooperate,  by  making  those  who  did  cooperate 


THE   FOUKTH   LAW   OP   MOTION  125 

survive  in  the  struggle  for  existence  between  tribe  and  tribe. 
With  such  a  simple  beginning,  working  with  such  simple 
means,  our  complicated  civilization  has  been  developed  after 
countless  centuries  of  evolution.  Whatever  is  good  is  repeated 
with  modifications  due  to  external  repetition  until  external  rep- 
etitions finally  adapt  man  to  both  his  natural  and  social  envi- 
ronments. And  thus  finally  the  function  of  society  is  to  direct 
the  energies  of  the  individual  and  its  own  movements  as  an 
organism,  as  the  function  of  the  individual  is  to  control  and  di- 
rect the  energies  of  nature  and  his  own  energies  as  an  organism. 

Just  as  the  physical  energies  of  nature  created  in  man  his 
senses,  then  his  intellect  with  the  function  of  controlling  the 
physical  energies  of  nature  and  his  own  energies,  so  the 
expenditure  of  human  energy  (feelings  and  emotions),  in 
society  created  within  the  individual  moral  and  social  senses 
with  the  function  of  controlling  and  regulating  the  dissipa- 
tion of  human  energy,  making  it  flow  into  the  most  economic 
channnels  possible.  Man  is  thus  a  double  being,  on  one  side 
an  individual  witli  the  function  of  controlling  the  energies 
of  nature  for  his  own  selfish  use ;  on  the  other  a  social  being, 
a  unit  in  the  social  orgainzation,  which  created  within  him 
moral  and  social  senses,  with  the  function  of  controlling 
human  energies  to  the  advantage  of  society  as  an  organism. 
Now  as  man's  mind  controls  the  energies  of  nature,  direct- 
ing them  along  the  channels  of  the  greatest  economy  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  individual,  so  does  society  control 
individual  energy,  through  the  moral  and  social  senses, 
directing  it  along  channels  of  the  greatest  economy  from  the 
point  of  view  of  society. 

The  primitive  individual,  with  all  of  his  intellectuality, 
would  have  accomplished  little  but  for  his  inherent  tend- 
ency to  organization,  socialization — a  tendency  due  to  the 
ultimate  nature  of  matter,  as  we  see  it  in  the  universal  proc- 
ess ;  a  tendency  which  will  inevitably  end  in  the  socialization 
of  the  entire  human  race — the  summum  bonum. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  EXPENDITURE  OF  ENERGY  UNDER  THE  CONTROL    OF  THE 
MORAL   SENSE  :    THE  FIFTH  LAW  OF  MOTION. 

I 

It  is  very  difficult  to  get  a  true  physical  conception  of  the 
individual's  position  in  nature.  He  is  immersed  in  an  ocean 
of  air  of  unknown  depth  surrounding  the  entire  earth,  which 
is  charged  with  many  physical  energies  and  is  surrounded  by 
many  physical  bodies  that  are  related  to  him  by  mutual 
benefits  and  evils.  The  individual  is  in  the  field  of  all  the 
physical  energies  of  nature  and  is  absolutely  dependent  upon 
nature  for  every  moment  of  his  life.  He  is  a  separate  part 
of  nature  only  figuratively  speaking;  in  fact,  he  is  closely 
interwoven,  enmeshed,  enveloped  in  nature  by  its  energies, 
all  of  which  act  and  react  upon  him  constantly  and  without 
which  he  could  not  live  an  instant. 

But,  if  the  individual  is  enveloped  in  an  ocean  of  air 
physically,  he  is  none  the  less  enveloped  in  an  ocean  of 
knowledge,  pseudo-knowledge,  belief  and  superstition 
psychically  and  sociologically.  Just  as  it  is  impossible  for 
the  individual  to  be  independent  of  nature,  so  is  it  abso- 
lutely impossible  for  him  to  be  independent  of  the  race. 
Just  as  the  physical  energies  of  nature  are  constantly  acting 
and  reacting  upon  the  individual  so  are  the  psychical  and 
sociological  energies  of  the  race  constantly  acting  and 
reacting  upon  him.  In  both  cases  he  is  enmeshed,  inter- 
woven, a  constituent  part  of  the  whole,  intimately  related  to 
the  whole,  as  an  organ  of  the  body  is  related  to  the  body  as 
a  whole,  and  to  think  otherwise  is  but  an  hallucination  of 
one's  ego.  Not  to  notice  man's  absolute  dependence  upon 

126 


THE   FIFTH   LAW   OF   MOTION  127 

nature,  his  complete  dependence  upon  the  race,  is  a  delusion 
of  one's  individuality,  which  in  the  past  served  the  purpose 
of  creating  in  the  individual  an  inordinate  egotism,  conceit, 
that  made  him  attempt  the  impossible,  thus  ultimately 
enabling  him  to  accomplish  the  possible.  It  made  him  think 
he  was  the  lord  of  all  earth;  that  the  sun  was  made  to 
light  his  steps  by  day,  the  moon  by  night;  that  he  was  the 
darling  of  the  gods,  a  minion  of  nature,  little  less  than  an 
angel,  the  object  of  all  creation.  But  this  individual  egotism, 
conceit,  now  is  a  deterrent  to  further  human  development, 
because  it  defeats  the  socialization  of  humanity  in  accom- 
plishing the  destiny  of  the  race  through  social  cooperation. 
Human  arrogance  is  one  of  the  strongest  deterrents  to 
universal  democracy. 

Man  has  always  felt  his  utter  dependence  upon  outside 
powers  and,  in  his  ignorance,  placed  this  dependence  in 
dream-life  and  in  the  imaginary  world  of  gods  and  spirits, 
instead  of  upon  the  real  world  of  nature  and  humanity. 
The  dependence  of  the  individual  upon  an  imaginary  world 
of  gods  and  spirits  to-day  should  be  given  up,  because  the 
greatest  scholars  and  leaders  of  men  no  longer  believe  in 
them,  and  such  beliefs,  therefore,  can  no  longer  develop  the 
moral  and  social  senses,  but  instead  are  taken  advantage  of  by 
designing  individuals  and  are  used  for  their  own  private 
benefit.  The  individual's  dependence  should  rest  upon 
the  real  worlds  of  nature  and  humanity.  When  so 
placed,  man's  psychical  and  sociological  life  can  be  studied 
the  same  as  his  physical  life,  and  the  moral  and  social 
senses  consciously  developed  the  same  as  the  intellect. 
Man's  psychical  life  will  be  then  just  as  real  as  his  physical 
life. 

If  there  is  a  supernatural  God,  then  it  is  absolutely  impos- 
sible to  have  a  scientific  knowledge  of  nature  and  society, 
because  science  must  be  based  on  known  facts,  and  the  ques- 
tion, "Canst  thou  by  searching  find  out  God?"  has  never 


128      THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF   HUMANITY 

been  answered  in  the  affirmative.  That  everything  we  see  is 
due  to  a  supernatural  God  is  false  in  fact,  but  allegorically 
true  in  that  God  symbolizes  the  action  of  the  race  upon  the 
individual.  Eeal  facts  affect  the  individual  as  the  imaginary 
God  is  supposed  to  affect  him.  All  the  evidence  that  man 
has  used  to  prove  the  existence  of  a  supernatural  God  is  due 
to  his  psychical  environment,  hitherto  inexplicable  to  him. 

The  race  has  outlived  the  function  of  the  imaginary  world 
to  promote  morality  and  sociality,  no  matter  how  useful  it 
may  have  been  in  the  past.  Never  before  in  history  has  the 
function  of  the  imagination  been  fully  guessed,  nor  an 
explanation  why  mankind  was  so  dominated  by  it  been 
made.  No  doubt  in  the  history  of  the  struggle  for 
existence  of  the  race  many  a  tribe  has  become  extinct 
because  of  its  lack  of  imagination  to  invent  gods  and  ghosts 
and  other  superstitions  to  enforce  social  decrees;  but  now 
the  fear  is  that  the  race  will  become  extinct  because  it  can- 
not do  away  with  its  gods,  ghosts  and  superstitions,  and  use 
scientific  knowledge  in  their  stead.  We  have  outgrown  the 
allegorical  interpretation  of  life.  The  race  is  upon  the  eve 
of  orientation,  and  this  stepping  stone  of  humanity  must  be 
discarded  and  the  race  use  the  ladder  of  facts  upon  which 
to  climb  to  its  true  place  in  creation :  the  acme  of  all  develop- 
ment through  the  moral  and  social  senses  based  on  knowl- 
edge and  actual  experience  in  living  society. 

The  physical  dependence  of  the  individual  upon  nature  is 
an  ever  present  certainty,  and  man's  psychical  and  sociolog- 
ical dependence  upon  the  race  is  just  as  certain,  but  hereto- 
fore understood  only  allegorically  as  dependence  upon  God. 
Man  first  understands  nature,  life,  mind  and  society  mytho- 
logically,  figuratively,  sees  the  facts  through  a  glass  darkly ; 
then  follows  science,  and  he  sees  the  facts  face  to  face. 
God  originally  was  a  ruler  of  men,  and  as  such  stood  for  the 
tribe  as  a  whole.  And  while  the  religious  man  to-day  does 
not  know  it,  yet  service  to  God  is  really  valuable  because  it 


THE  FIFTH   LAW   OF   MOTION  129 

is  indirectly  service  to  humanity;  so  that  there  is  a  deeper 
meaning  in  the  allegory  of  God  and  humanity  than  one  at 
first  would  think.  But  this  is  true  of  all  allegorical  interpre- 
tations of  nature  and  society.  All  the  phenomena  of  nature 
that  have  suggested  the  necessity  for  a  God  have  been 
explained  without  one.  The  chasm  between  the  organic  and 
the  inorganic  has  been  bridged,  the  gap  between  mind  and 
matter  spanned,  and  the  whence,  whither  and  why  of 
humanity  determined.  There  is  no  need  of  the  hypothesis 
of  a  God  and  an  immortal  life  now.  A  synthesis  of  the  facts 
of  nature,  life,  mind  and  society  has  been  made  through 
the  law  of  repetition;  and  the  individual  for  the  first  time 
in  all  history  knows  really  what  he  is  and  the  destiny  of  the 
race  in  the  greater  destiny  of  things. 

II 

A  child  at  birth  is  born  into  a  physical  and  psychical 
environment.  The  physical  environment  develops  its  senses 
and  its  intellect;  the  psychical  environment  develops  ita 
moral  and  social  senses.  I  have  treated  of  the  origin  of  the 
senses,  the  intellect  and  the  emotions;  I  am  yet  to  treat  of 
the  moral  and  social  senses,  and  it  is  my  purpose  to  trace  tho 
origin  of  the  moral  sense  in  this  chapter  and  the  social  sense 
in  the  following,  despite  the  fact  that  it  is  difficult  to  treat 
of  the  one  and  not  of  the  other.  Heretofore  the  develop- 
ment of  both  the  moral  and  social  senses  have  been  purely 
unconscious,  instinctive ;  but  in  the  future  their  development 
will  be  perfectly  conscious.  This  is  the  function  of  educa- 
tion. It  puts  a  purpose  in  life,  a  meaning  to  our  ceaselesa 
quest  for  knowledge,  our  untiring  efforts  at  the  attainment  of 
a  perfect  life. 

With  the  evolution  of  the  mind  there  is  produced  a  new 
manifestation  of  energy,  human  energy,  being  the  union  ot 
the  gravitant  energies  constituting  matter  and  the  radiant 
energies  constituting  the  conditions  of  matter,  in  an  inde-. 


130      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

pendent  organism,  the  individual;  or  differently  put,  being 
the  union  of  the  internal  energies  of  will,  love,  ambition  and 
so  forth,  and  the  external  energies  in  the  form  of  sense  regis- 
trations, or  intellect.  It  is  simply  the  blind  energies  of 
nature  turning  upon  themselves'  in  self-apprehension  and 
self -direction.  With  this  union  of  the  emotions  and  the 
intellect,  the  function  of  the  individual,  that  of  directing 
the  energies  of  nature  and  his  own  energies  to  his  own 
advantage,  is  perfected.  The  energies  of  the  individual 
are  always  expended  along  the  lines  of  the  least  resistance, 
such  lines  being  the  laws  of  human  nature,  the  most  eco- 
nomic expenditure  of  energy  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
individual,  but  by  no  means  the  greatest  possible  economy 
attainable  in  the  universal  process  of  nature.  When  the 
individual  reaches  organic  independence,  he  becomes  the 
unit  of  the  social  organism ;  and  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  tribe,  the  nation,  the  race,  individuals  in  the  expendi- 
ture of  their  energies  are  constantly  brought  into  conflict 
with  other  individuals  in  the  expenditure  of  their  energies, 
resulting  in  opposition,  neutralization  and  waste  of  human 
energy  and  ending  in  another  form  of  control,  the  race's 
control  of  the  individual  through  the  social  organism  (a  con- 
trol similar  to  the  control  of  the  energies  of  nature  by  the  indi- 
vidual through  his  senses  and  intellect),  and  thus  terminates 
with  the  greatest  economy  of  energy  possible  in  all  nature. 

At  this  stage  in  the  history  of  evolution,  humanity  orig- 
inated the  moral  and  social  senses,  through  which  social 
control  is  effected.  The  development^and  perfection  of  the 
moral  and  social  senses  by  naturalistic  means  is  the  problem 
that  confronts  the  race  to-day. 

Ill 

Human  energy,  comprising  feelings  and  emotions,  like  all 
energy  when  uncontrolled,  expends  itself  along  the  line  of 
the  least  resistance  or  the  greatest  attraction,  the  resultant 


THE   FIFTH   LAW   OF   MOTION  131 

of  the  conditioning  energies ;  and,  in  expending  itself,  regis- 
ters itself  in  the  nervous  systems  of  the  acting  individuals 
by  the  law  of  external  repetition,  leaving  residua  which  in 
time  become  a  moral  sense  through  which  similar  energies 
are  afterwards  cognized  and  classified  and  which  has  the 
function  of  regulating  and  determining  the  expenditure  of 
the  energies  of  the  individuals  in  reactions  from  similar 
stimuli.  As  the  physical  energies  have  originated  the  phys- 
ical senses  in  the  animal  organism  to  make  it  aware  of 
external  nature,  so  that  it  may  expend  its  energies  in  the 
most  economic  manner  possible  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
individual  in  nature :  so  human  energy,  feelings  and  emo- 
tions, in  its  expenditure  in  registering  itself  in  human  organ- 
ims,  as  adjusted  in  society,  originated  a  moral  sense  in  the 
individual,  which  makes  him  aware  of  human  energies  as 
they  exist  in  human  beings  in  society,  and  which  determines 
the  expenditure  of  his  energies  in  society  in  the  most  eco- 
nomical manner  possible. 

When  human  beings  in  the  expenditure  of  their  energies, 
feelings  and  emotions,  come  in  contact  with  one  another,  a 
conflict  results  as  to  which  being  shall  furnish  the  idea,  plan, 
the  avenue  for  the  expending  energies.  More  often  the  con- 
flict is  between  tribe  and  tribe.  The  idea  or  plan  which  gains 
the  victory  in  the  conflict  will  have  a  precedence  in  any 
other  conflicts,  but  of  course  it  will  have  to  give  way  to  any 
other  idea  or  plan  that  is  found  to  furnish  an  avenue  of 
expenditure  that  is  still  more  economical,  that  is,  that  can  be 
followed  with  less  conflict.  It  is  possible  that  animals  have 
moral  senses  this  highly  developed.  When  tribes,  which 
have  adopted  certain  forms  of  expending  human  energy — 
marriage  systems,  methods  of  holding  property,  kinds  of 
government — come  in  conflict  with  other  tribes  which  have 
adopted  other  forms,  a  tribal  conflict  results  and  the  tribe 
having  the  superior  forms,  the  one  that  best  conserves  the 
welfare  of  the  tribe,  produced  by  the  superior  moral  sense* 


132      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

dominates,  conquers  and  controls.  In  the  struggle  for 
existence  between  tribe  and  tribe,  the  moral  tribe,  the  one 
that  has  the  superior  moral  sense  and  the  consequent  supe- 
rior customs,  laws,  ideals  and  institutions,  is,  figuratively 
speaking,  always  the  chosen  of  God,  and  they  are  the  tribes 
which  have  overrun  the  earth  as  we  see  it  to-day. 

In  the  history  of  the  race  there  have  been  many  forms  of 
marriage,  many  forms  of  holding  property,  many  kinds  of 
government,  which  are  nothing  but  different  ideas  as  to  how 
the  energy  of  love,  cupidity  and  ambition  shall  be  expended 
in  society.  This  is  true  of  all  of  man's  forms  of  expending 
energy,  forms  of  government,  religious  ceremonies,  social 
customs,  ideals  and  knowledge,  and  when  one  form  of 
expenditure  is  established,  it  becomes  imperative  to  the 
individual  to  follow  it,  and  the  race  enforces  its  observance 
with  all  the  cruelty  and  severity  possible  to  primitive  man's 
savage  nature.  In  the  individual  these  social  methods  of 
expending  energy  become  a  form  or  faculty  (the  moral  sense, 
with  us  to-day,  conscience  and  duty),  by  which  all  human 
energies  are  expended  and  determined. 

At  the  beginning  among  the  contending  individuals  at 
each  new  conflict,  registered  impressions  of  the  severity  of 
former  conflicts  influence  the  present  conflict  by  furnishing 
avenues  for  expending  human  energy,  until  finally  a  superior 
avenue  of  apprehending  and  expending  human  energy  is 
reached,  which  becomes  tribal,  and  is  rigorously  enforced  by 
all,  called  the  moral  sense.  The  development  of  the  moral 
sense  can  be  traced  in  each  of  our  lives  through  the  painful 
conflict  we  met  with  in  trying  to  "expend  our  energies,  love, 
cupidity,  selfishness,  in  opposition  to  it  as  it  exists  in  society 
to-day,  in  arousing  it  in  ourselves  by  punishing  others  for  its 
violation  and  by  meeting  with  reward  in  expending  our 
energies  in  accord  with  it.  The  history  of  the  moral  sense 
of  the  race  can  be  traced,  beginning  with  the  clan-morality  of 
savages,  extending  to  the  Brotherhood  of  Man  of  Christian- 


THE   FIFTH   LAW   OF   MOTION  133 

ity,  and  the  unity  of  all  life  of  Buddhism,  and  ending  with 
the  continuity  of  the  physical,  the  mental  and  the  social 
throughout  all  nature  being  the  highest  form  of  ethical  cul- 
ture possible  to  mankind. 

IV 

The  moral  sense  is  produced  by  the  opposition  and  conflict 
in  the  expenditure  of  human  feelings  and  emotions  that  the 
individual  meets  with  in  society.  In  the  adjustment  result- 
ing that  line  of  expenditure  is  adopted  which  is  the  most 
economic  from  the  point  of  view  of  society,  and  when  one 
form  of  expenditure  once  becomes  adopted,  it  becomes  a 
mental  form  or  faculty,  conscience  and  duty,  and  not  to  use 
it  in  the  expenditure  of  one's  energies  results  in  pain  to  the 
individual,  called  a  compunction  of  conscience;  as  to  use 
it  invariably  results  in  an  exhilaration  called  pleasure, 
happiness,  joy,  ecstasy.  Conscience  is  the  residua  of  the 
punishments  and  rewards  of  the  race  registered  in  us  from 
the  point  of  view  of  feeling,  denouncing  us  for  all  actions 
that  are  injurious  to  the  race  and  commending  us  for  all 
actions  that  are  beneficial  to  the  race.  A  compunction  of 
conscience  is  a  reaction  due  to  individual  energy  being  dis- 
sipated contrary  to  the  sensibility  society  has  created  in  us, 
society  thus  showing  us  that  in  following  individual  passion, 
desire,  or  will,  we  have  not  expended  our  energies  in  the 
most  economic  channels  possible  from  the  point  of  view  of 
society,  but  have  wasted  them  in  expenditure  along  indi- 
vidual lines  in  indolence,  folly  and  vice.  Duty  is  a  reaction 
of  society  which  makes  us  seek  the  most  economic  channels 
for  the  expenditure  of  our  energy,  that  channel  which  best 
conserves  the  life  of  the  tribe,  the  nation  or  the  race,  by 
producing  in  us  pleasure,  ecstasy,  when  our  energy  is  expended 
through  it^.  In  fact,  when  a  person  does  his  duty  the  reac- 
tion produces  in  him  the  emotion  of  religion,  although  it  is 
not  always  called  by  that  name.  To  obey  one's  moral  sense 


134      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

always  produces  religious  ecstasy,  no  matter  if  it  be  the  direst 
prejudice,  superstition,  bigotry,  or  the  sublimest  altruism  and 
humanity. 

Any  expenditure  of  energy  that  hurts  or  benefits  the 
individual,  let  it  be  in  nature  or  society,  leaves  residua  of 
the  experience,  and  when  the  same  experience  is  again  pre- 
sented,we  are  afraid  of  it  or  are  attracted  towards  it.  Con- 
science and  duty  (the  moral  sense)  are  thus  developed.  The 
moral  sense  is  a  true  sense  in  that  it  protects  the  individual 
by  enabling  him  to  apprehend  at  a  distance,  or  in  imagina- 
tion, the  various  channels  in  the  expenditure  of  energy  that 
are  either  hurtful  or  beneficial,  without  actual  contact, 
conflict  or  experience,  so  that  they  can  be  avoided  if  hurtful 
or  followed  if  beneficial.  Conscience  and  duty  so  far  in  the 
history  of  the  race  have  been  developed  blindly,  instinctively, 
the  race  not  knowing  that  punishment  and  reward  develop 
the  moral  sense  any  more  than  do  animals  know  that  procrea- 
tion perpetuates  the  species,  but  to-day  the  development  of 
the  moral  sense  will  be  produced  consciously  as  love  is 
generated  by  man  in  his  deliberate  courtship. 

Conscience  and  duty  while  perfectly  explicable  from  a 
naturalistic  point  of  view,  yet  are  certainly  wonderful  pro- 
ducts. Had  not  the  race  by  punishment  and  reward  possessed 
the  ability  to  originate  in  the  individual  the  moral  sense, 
which  punishes  and  rewards  the  individual  in  the  absence  of 
external  society,  the  race  would  never  have  reached  its 
present  high  civilization.  No  wonder  that  primitive  man 
'thought  the  naturalistically  evolved  moral  sense  a  creation  of 
God,  for  he  could  not  see  the  workings  of  the  facts  on 
account  of  his  belief  in  fictions.  The  God  explanation  of  a 
thing  stops  all  further  thought  until  the  hypothesis  is 
abandoned  consciously  or  unconsciously. 

The  function  of  the  moral  sense  is  to  control  and  direct 
the  opposing,  neutralizing  and  wasting  energies  (feelings  and 
emotions)  of  individuals  to  one  purpose :  the  betterment  of 


THE   FIFTH   LAW   OF   MOTION  135 

society  as  a  whole,  through  one's  impressions  of  society  as 
they  come  to  him  through  his  sensibility,  pleasure  and  pain, 
in  the  absence  of  social  knowledge  or  social  sense;  so  that 
the  greatest  possible  organization  may  be  produced  by  direct- 
ing all  of  the  energies  of  all  of  the  individuals  of  society  into 
one  channel,  the  greatest  possible  economy  of  energy  from 
the  point  of  view  of  society. 

The  moral  sense  is  society's  reaction  upon  the  individual 
and  the  individual's  registration  of  it.  It  is  the  beginning 
of  that  control  of  the  individual  by  society  which  will  end 
in  his  perfect  control  by  it  through  the  social  sense ;  as  the 
development  of  the  senses  in  animals  was  the  beginning  of 
that  control  of  nature  by  animals,  which  has  culminated  in 
man's  control  of  nature  through  his  intellect  as  we  see  it 
to-day. 

This  regulation  of  the  expenditure  of  human  energy  by 
the  race  through  the  moral  sense  (conscience  and  duty)  is  a 
fifth  law  of  motion,  a  fifth  way  that  energy  expends  itself  in 
nature,  being  a  modification  of  the  fourth  law  of  motion  (the 
intellect),  as  the  fourth  law  is  a  modification  of  the  funda- 
mental law  of  the  expenditure  of  all  energy,  that  energy 
always  takes  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  determined  by 
the  conditioning  energies.  In  the  case  of  the  fifth  law  of 
motion,  the  determination  is  by  conscience  and  duty,  and 
differs  from  the  fourth  law,  determination  by  the  intellect,  in 
that  it  directs  the  expenditure  of  the  energies  of  the  indi- 
vidual into  channels  of  right,  virtue  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  race,  in  opposition  to  the  self-interest  of  the  individual. 

V 

Early  in  the  history  of  the  race  the  moral  sense  was  called 
the  voice  of  God.  It  is  in  fact  the  voice  of  humanity  speak- 
ing to  the  individual,  telling  him  how  to  expend  his  energies 
through  the  most  economic  channels  possible,  as  worked  out 
by  the  race  after  countless  centuries  of  trials  and  tribulations. 


13G       THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF   HUMANITY 

With  primitive  humanity  the  chief  source  of  developing  the 
moral  sense  was  a  belief  in  God,  who  punishes  and  rewards 
in  a  world  to  come  for  actions  done  in  this  world.  All  the 
customs,  ideals  and  institutions  of  the  tribe  were  repeated  in 
the  miiid  of  the  individual  until  they  were  as  much  a  part  of 
his  being  as  his  individual  nature,  and  he  almost  uncon- 
sciouslly  followed  them;  but  should  he  balk,  attempt  to 
use  his  individual  notions  of  the  expenditure  of  energy,  then 
followed  punishment,  including  torture,  disgrace  and  death; 
and  in  case  of  meretorious  obedience,  reward  of  religious 
ecstasy  was  always  sure.  As  a  result  the  moral  sense  of 
savages  is  very  acute,  but  owing  to  their  imperfect  social 
sense  it  is  of  a  very  low  order ;  still,  but  for  it,  the  race  would 
never  have  reached  its  present  high  development.  Con- 
science with  primitive  man  condemns  the  expenditure  of 
human  energy  according  to  one's  individual  nature  as  sin,  a 
violation  of  God's  law,  and  inclinations  to  such  expenditure 
as  temptations  of  the  devil.  This  is  an  allegorical  explana- 
tion of  the  facts  which  primitive  man  could  understand  in  no 
other  way.  The  chief  difference  between  primitive  man  and 
modern  man  is  that  primitive  man  confused  his  dreams  and 
his  imaginings  with  his  real  mental  experience,  and  this  to  the 
savage  was  an  advantage,  as  to  the  civilized  man  it  is  a  disad^ 
vantage;  for  primitive  man  based  his  life  on  fictions,  while  we 
base  ours  on  facts.  With  the  savage,  the  dead  reign  more 
potently  than  the  living.  Kings  and  heroes  were  thus  enabled 
to  hold  the  tribe  together,  not  only  for  a  brief  lifetime  but, 
through  deification,  for  thousands  of  years.  The  imaginary 
world  controlled  as  effectively  as  the  real  world,  and  enabled 
primitive  man  to  supplement  his  impotency  from  ignorance 
with  a  supernatural  God  to  enforce  the  decrees  of  natural 
society.  But  to-day  to  believe  that  an  imaginary  God  con- 
trols society  makes  man  dependent  on  God  instead  of  him- 
self. The  unity  of  the  race  is  effected  to-day  by  the  facts 
which  show  the  solidarity  of  the  race  as  an  organism,  upon 


THE   FIFTH   LAW  OF   MOTION  137 

which  the  individual  depends  for  all  he  is  or  hopes  to  be, 
and  he  owes  nothing  to  the  imaginary  world  in  which  he  no 
longer  believes.  With  an  intellect  not  sufficiently  developed 
to  form  naturalistic  concepts  of  nature,  man  and  society, 
primitive  man — except  for  the  invention  of  a  national  God 
out  of  a  national  hero  to  bind  the  tribe,  the  nation-,  together — 
could  never  have  formed  a  social  organization  above  the  clan, 
if  even  that  high.  This  is  why  God  is  so  sacred.  It  was 
through  a  belief  in  God  that  humanity  has  been  bound 
together,  although  not  consciously,  from  the  beginning,  and 
it  would  still  be  so  bound  by  this  great  belief  to-day  if  it 
were  sincerely  believed  in;  but  theology  is  a  philosophy  that 
has  had  its  day  along  with  the  other  mythologies  of  our  race. 
The  race  stands  in  the  presence  of  reality  to-day  owing  to  its 
high  intellectuality,  and  there  is  no  more  use  to  invoke 
myths  to  cure  social  diseases  than  to  invoke  charms  and 
faith  to  cure  physical  diseases. 

The  history  of  the  expenditure  of  human  energy  shows 
that  in  primitive  times  dream-life  and  the  imaginary  world 
had  more  to  do  with  human  control  than  the  real  facts  of 
human  existence.  If  the  imaginary  world  is  believed  in  per- 
fectly it  is  as  real  as  one's  living  experience,  and  in  primitive 
times  it  controlled  the  individual  so  his  nature  was  in  per- 
fect subjection  to  the  race;  and  much  of  our  sensitive  moral 
nature  is  due  to  the  culture  inherited  from  primitive  man, 
to  Avhom  a  dream  was  a  fact  and  imagination  and  reality 
indistinguishable  experiences.  The  effect  of  the  race  upon 
the  individual  was  not  only  by  living  men,  but  the  dead  and 
the  imaginary  world.  The  individual  in  naming  the  effects 
that  the  real  world  had  upon  him,  the  facts  of  his  social 
existence,  his  experience  with  those  about  him,  always 
attributed  his  moral  nature  to  the  imaginary  world  of  the 
gods ;  yet  the  real  absolutely  necessary  cause  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  moral  sense  is  the  living,  breathing  humanity 
about  us ;  for  if  one  is  reared  free  from  all  association  with 


138       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

his  fellows  he  is  devoid  of  both  moral  and  social  senses. 
Primitive  man  honestly  believed  in  gods  and  spirits.  They 
were  a  part  of  his  life,  and  in  order  to  bring  the  individual 
into  subjection  to  the  tribe,  the  powers  of  living  humanity, 
the  heoric  dead  and  the  imaginary  world  of  gods  were  uncon- 
sciously and  instinctively  invoked. 

The  only  way  a  savage  can  picture  heredity  to  his  mind  is 
to  believe  that  all  who  have  gone  before  still  live  in  spirit. 
Figuratively  they  do.  Our  ancestors  live  in  us,  not  in  a 
spirit  land.  The  hero  becomes  a  god  not  in  the  sky,  but  in 
our  minds.  But  to  the  savage  the  facts  are  only  possible  of 
comprehension  through  symbol ization  of  God  and  immor- 
tality. To-day  the  facts  must  suffice  for  us.  Modern 
humanity  stands  in  the  presence  of  reality  unrelieved  by 
dreams  or  the  imagination.  To-day  society  by  punishment 
and  reward  develops  in  us  a  moral  sense  (on  the  principle 
that  the  burnt  child  dreads  the  fire  and  that  virtue  is  its 
own  reward),  before  which  all  of  our  conduct  passes  for 
approval  or  condemnation.  The  moral  sense  is  society  in 
us  compelling  our  individual  nature  to  expend  its  energies 
for  the  benefit  of  the  race.  It  is  the  fact  in  nature  that 
gives  rise  to  the  belief  that  there  is  a  God  in  the  sky  that 
controls  us  by  reward  and  punishment.  The  control  is  from 
the  race  and  is  planted  in  us  by  punishment  and  reward, 
administered  to  us  by  our  fellows  about  us.  This  is  the 
naturalistic  explanation  of  the  moral  sense,  and  its  relation 
to  the  belief  in  God  and  immortality.  The  moral  and  social 
senses  put  us  in  exactly  the  same  relation  to  society  that  the 
physical  senses  and  the  intellect  put  us  in  in  relation  to 
nature.  In  each  case  there  is  a  return  of  the  energies  con- 
stituting nature  and  society  upon  themselves  in  the  indi- 
vidual, in  the  case  of  nature  resulting  in  self-consciousness, 
in  the  case  of  society  resulting  in  social  consciousness. 

The  moral  sense  of  savages  so  far  as  it  goes  is  very  acute, 
but  savages  being  almost  deficient  in  social  sense,  there  is  little 


THE   FIFTH    LAW   OF   MOTION  139 

development  among  them.  Humanity  to-day  is  not  a  com- 
plete exception  to  the  primitive  way  of  developing  the  moral 
sense.  It  is  true  we  do  not  draw  much" upon  dream-life — how- 
ever, the  imaginary  world  has  not  lost  all  of  its  potency  yet, 
especially  with  children  and  the  uneducated;  but  owing  to 
the  remarkable  intellectual  powers  of  the  average  individual, 
such  invocation  of  the  gods  really  in  the  end  does  more 
harm  than  good,  for  it  is  relied  on  almost  exclusively  to 
develop  the  moral  sense  when,  in  fact,  most  modern  men  no 
longer  believe  in  the  gods  and  myths  of  their  ancestors  and 
hence  are  deficient  in  moral  sense.  Better  far  would  it  be  if 
humanity  depended  exclusively  upon  itself  to  perfect  the 
individual's  moral  and  social  senses  and  would  exclude  these 
ancient  means  of  development  entirely.  But  it  may  well  be 
doubted  that,  if  primitive  humanity  had  not  had  this  ability 
of  marshalling  imaginary  powers  to  enforce  its  commands, 
it  ever  could  have  developed  a  moral  sense  as  acute  as  con- 
science and  duty  are  to-day,  or  a  social  sense  as  far  seeing  as 
scientific  knowledge  is.  Still,  to  cling  to  this  primitive 
method  of  developing  the  moral  sense  now,  after  the  indi- 
vidual has  outgrown  it,  may  result  in  defeating  the  perfec- 
tion of  the  race  by  having  adopted  it  at  the  start  out.  The 
day  has  come  when  humanity  is  able  to  stand  on  the  facts  of 
its  existence,  to  let  the  fictions  go  as  having  served  a  good 
purpose  and  as  now  useless  rubbish  in  the  way  of  scientific 
building  on  the  foundation  of  reality. 

VII 

We  have  seen  the  moral  sense  to  be  a  result  of  the  conflict 
in  the  expenditure  of  human  energy  in  society.  It  is  the 
soreness  resulting  from  the  punishment  given  us  by  society 
through  shame,  imprisonment,  deprivation  of  honors,  denial 
of  privileges  and  a  thousand  and  one  other  ways  of  hurting 
us  when  we  expend  our  energies  contrary  to  the  decrees  of 
society;  or  the  exhilaration  we  feel  from  the  applause,  the 


140      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

approval,  the  honor,  the  reward  ^in  position,  wealth,  or  any 
of  the  thousand  other  ways  society  has  of  showing  its 
approval  and  commendation  of  our  ways  of  expending  our 
energies  when  we  expend  them  according  to  the  decrees  of 
society.  Man's,  individual  nature  tempts  him  to  expend 
his  energies  regardless  of  his  social  nature.  Man  is  first  an 
individual,  then  a  social  being;  but  the  individual  soon 
comes  in  contact  with  some  social  standard  in  his  expendi- 
ture of  energy  and  he  is  moulded  into  submission  to  society 
by  the  conflict  he  meets  with,  by  the  treatment  he  is  sub- 
jected to,  until  soon  his  experience  develops  in  himjiis  moral 
sense;  then  he  takes  delight  in  living  it  and  compelling 
others  to  live  according  to  it. 

When  the  moral  sense  is  undeveloped,  punishment  and 
reward  for  not  living  according  to  it  are  from  society,  but 
when  the  moral  sense  is  highly  developed  the  punishment  is 
within  ourselves  and  cannot  be  escaped.  Conscience  is 
society  in  us  that  pursues  our  individuality  as  an  all-feeling 
sense,  as  the  social  sense  is  society  in  us  that  pursues  our 
individuality  as  an  all-seeing  eye  which  we  cannot  escape 
and  which  compels  us  to  expend  our  energies  according  to 
the  decrees  of  society.  The  individual  cannot  hide  his  sins 
from  society;  for  through  his  moral  and  social  senses 
society  is  in  him.  This  is  the  truth  in  the  myth  of  an 
omnipresent  God  who  sees  and  punishes  us  for  all  our 
secret  sins.  If]  we  do  not  listen  to  the  voice  of  society  in 
ns  and  are  so  adroit  as  to  escape  detection  by  society 
outside  us,  then  our  vices  write  themselves  in  our  faces 
and  the  world  finds  us  out.  This  is  why  "murder  will 
out,"  why  the  deed  returns  upon  the  doer.  It  is  impossible 
for  an  individual  to  live  in  opposition  to  the  race,  let  him 
be  king,  millionaire,  a  *genius,  a  criminal,  without  suffering 
degeneration,  resulting  in  a  life  of  abject  misery.  The 
sooner  the  individual  learns  that  the  only  way  to  be  truly 
happy  is  to  serve  the  race  consciously,  live  his  social  nature 


THE   FIFTH   LAW   OF   MOTION  141 

instead  of  his  individual  nature,  the  happier  he  will  be.  No 
man  can  live  and  be  happy  and  oppose  the  race  consciously 
or  unconsciously.  This  is  the  reason  so  many  people  who 
think  themselves  religious  are  so  miserable.  It  is  not  God 
that  the  individual  should  serve,  but  humanity.  To  serve 
God  is  symbolical  service  to  the  race.  The  greatest  happi- 
ness is  conscious  willing  service  to  humanity.  This  is  true 
religion. 

It  is  impossible  for  the  individual  to  live  unto  himself. 
Not  to  follow  moral  concepts,  when  we  have  them,  is  to 
suffer  remorse,  shame,  the  pangs  of  conscience,  for  the  wasted 
energies  otherwise  expended.  Man's  individual  nature  is 
punished  by  his  social  nature,  until  his  social  nature  is 
dominant,  or  the  individual  ends  in  being  a  criminal  and  is 
brought  into  subjection  by  society,  or  taken  completely  out 
of  it  by  the  prison  or  the  scaffold. 

VIII 

The  line  of  expenditure  of  energy  of  the  sense  of  touch  or 
sensibility  is  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  of  mechanical 
energy  between  the  periphery  of  the  organism  into  the  chem- 
ical energies,  thence  to  the  motor  apparatus  of  the  organism ; 
and  it  reaches  perfection  by  reducing  the  friction  of  expen- 
ding energy  in  the  reactions  of  the  organism  on  its  environ- 
ment, so  that  whenever  the  stimulus  is  felt  the  action  of  the 
organism  invariably  follows  with  the  greatest  economy  of 
energy.  What  is  true  of  the  sense  of  touch  in  the  animal 
organism  is  true  of  the  moral  sense,  it  too  being  a  sense  of 
sensibility,  but  produced  by  a  different  kind  of  energy  than 
physical  contact,  human  energy,  consisting  of  human  feel- 
ings and  emotions  as  expended  by  human  beings  in  actions 
guided  solely  by  the  intellect.  The  moral  sense  is  a  sense 
of  sensibility,  being  the  residua  of  contact  with  human 
beings  coming  in  conflict  with  one  another  in  the  expendi- 
ture of  their  energy,  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  or  the 


U2       THE   SOCIALIZzYTIOX   OF   HUMANITY 

line  that  causes  the  least  conflict  being  the  resultant  of  the 
opposing  energies  of  all  the  acting  individuals,  but  usually 
one  individual  expending  his  individual  energies  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  tribe,  the  nation  or  the  race.  There  is  but  one 
kind  of  action  that  the  moral  sense  sanctions :  that  which 
secures  present  social  welfare,  being  the  line  of  the  expendi- 
ture of  energy  selected  by  the  race  in  the  course  of  its  long 
history,  causing  the  least  possible  conflict.  The  moral  sense 
is  a  kind  of  instinct,  being  concerned  only  with  present 
feeling  and  emotion,  and  is  widely  different  from  the  social 
sense,  its  function  being  to  secure  the  greatest  economy  of 
energy  by  using  all  the  knowledge  the  race  has  attained  in 
the  past  and  acquired  in  the  present. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  the  individual  the  test  of 
morality  is  feeling,  sympathy,  pleasure  and  pain ;  but  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  race  it  is  social  welfare,  order,  and 
may  be  in  perfect  opposition  to  the  pleasure  of  the  individual 
in  the  expenditure  of  his  individual  energies.  The  negative 
function  of  the  moral  sense  (conscience)  prohibits  pain-pro- 
ducing actions,  conflicts  between  individuals;  the  positive 
function  of  the  moral  sense  (duty)  compels  actions  that  con- 
serve the  welfare  of  the  race.  Conscience  and  duty  are  the 
positive  and  negative  sanctions  of  the  moral  sense.  Con- 
science prohibits  conflict  by  making  individuals  suffer 
remorse,  shame,  despair,  for  the  wrong  expenditure  of  their 
energies;  duty  compels  welfare  of  the  race  by  creating  in 
the  individuals  a  high  elation,  ecstasy,  whenever  their  ener- 
gies are  expended  along  the  lines  called  virtue,  right. 
Morality  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  moral  sense  is  a  mat- 
ter of  feeling,  not  only  feeling  in  the  animal  sense,  but  feel- 
ing in  the  social  sense  of  sympathy,  sympathy  being  social 
feeling.  "We  perform  certain  actions  because  they  make  us 
happy  and  desist  from  performing  others  because  they  make 
us  miserable.  All  moral  actions  are  the  most  economical 
ways  of  expending  human  energy  possible  from  the  point  of 


THE  FIFTH   LAW   OF   MOTION  143 

view  of  the  race.  Society  makes  all  of  its  individuals  act 
the  same  way  so  as  to  conserve  their  energies.  This  is  not 
true  only  on  moral  questions,  but  in  every  respect — fashion, 
custom,  conventionalities,  creed,  politics,  and  business.  If 
this  were  not  so,  then  the  energies  of  all  of  the  individuals 
constituting  society  would  be  expended  in  useless  conflict 
and  the  variation  from  the  racial  type  would  be  so  great  that 
the  race  might  become  extinct.  To  expend  energy  according 
to  the  moral  sense  means  freedom  from  conflict,  peace, 
order,  unity  of  race,  and  happiness  to  all. 

The  ideas  or  sentiments  controlling  the  reactions  from  the 
moral  sense  come  from  sensibility  or  sympathy.  The  actions 
from  the  moral  sense  are  performed  blindly  as  an  instinct,  or 
they  are  guided  by  an  intuition,  an  inspiration.  Whereas 
the  form  of  an  idea  of  the  social  sense  is  an  ideal,  a  reasoned 
concept,  a  mathematical  plan.  The  individual  feels  that  he 
must  expend  his  energies  according  to  the  intuition  or 
inspiration  suggested  by  the  moral  sense,  and  he  does  so 
blindly;  but  he  knows  it  is  best  to  expend  his  energies 
according  to  the  ideal  concept  suggested  by  the  social  sense, 
and  he  does  so  consciously.  The  distinction  between  the 
moral  and  social  senses  is  similar  to  the  distinction  between 
feeling  and  seeing  on  one  hand,  and  instinct  and  reason  on 
the  other. 

IX 

The  race's  method  of  creating  and  perfecting  the  moral 
sense  is  by  punishing  the  expenditure  of  energy  that  disre- 
gards the  moral  sense,  that  disregards  the  race's  methods  of 
expending  energy — acts  that  are  purely  individualistic — and 
by  rewarding  the  expenditure  of  energy  that  regards  the 
moral  sense,  that  regards  the  race — acts  that  are  a  benefit  to 
society  as  a  whole.  But  to-day  when  the  social  aggregate 
has  grown  so  large  and  the  belief  in  God  and  the  immortality 
of  the  soul  have  fallen  into  desuetude,  it  is  almost  impos- 


144      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

sible,  by  such  means,  to  develop  the  moral  sense  to  that 
degree  of  acuteness  necessary  in  order  to  make  all  men 
responsible  to  the  race  for  all  of  their  actions.  This  is  the 
problem  that  confronts  western  civilization  to-day,  and  it  cer- 
tainly will  not  solve  it  unless  it  sees  that  the  moral  sense  is  a 
natural  product  capable  of  development  the  same  as  the 
intellect  of  the  individual. 

The  race  can  no  longer  trust  to  God  for  salvation ;  it  must 
invoke  the  stern  facts  of  reality  and  work  out  its  destiny 
consciously,  knowingly,  courageously.  The  moral  sense  is 
developed  by  experience  in  living  society  and  is  not  some- 
thing due  to  imaginary  gods.  The  God  theory  of  things  has 
been  of  great  benefit  to  the  race  in  the  past ;  to  many  it 
seems  to  be  one  of  the  race's  scaffoldings  to  civilization  which 
cannot  be  taken  away  without  destroying  the  whole  struc- 
ture. But  this  is  purely  imaginary ;  for  really  a  belief  in  a 
supernatural  God,  in  the  sense  our  fathers  believed  in  it,  has 
been  discarded  long  ago  by  almost  all  of  the  scholars  of  the 
race,  the  greater  part  of  the  leaders,  and  a  goodly  portion  of 
the  common  people.  Hypocrisy,  pharisaism,  is  the  philos- 
ophy of  the  leaders  of  men  to-day  as  it  has  been  in  all  past 
ages  in  transitional  periods,  as  from  mythology  to  theology, 
or  from  fetishism  to  hero-worship. 

Just  as  nature  developed  the  sense  of  touch  by  punishing 
the  animal  that  disregarded  its  warnings  by  causing  it  to 
become  extinct  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  and  rewarded 
the  animal  that  heeded  them  by  causing  it  to  exist,  so  the 
race  has  done  in  the  past  in  regard  to  the  development  of 
the  moral  sense  among  tribes  of  men.  And  it  must  con- 
sciously follow  this  method  to-day  in  developing  the  moral 
sense;  for  what  the  race  did  blindly,  before  the  origination 
of  the  social  sense,  it  can  do  to-day  consciously  after  its 
development.  Only  those  tribes  and  nations  have  lived  in 
history  which  have  developed  a  high  moral  sense,  and  west- 
ern civilization  will  cease  to  exist  if  it  cannot  meet  the 


THE   FIFTH   LAW   OF  MOTION  145 

requirements  of  our  vast  social  organization  with  a  moral 
sense  acute  enough  to  take  in  all  of  our  social  disorders  and 
remedy  them  by  the  social  sense,  making  of  the  race  a  unity. 
Here  in  the  United  States  of  America  we  can  no  more  dis- 
pense with  punishment  for  every  violation  of  the  moral 
sense,  no  matter  how  great  the  individual,  or  how  powerful 
the  class,  than  could  nature  in  developing  the  physical  sense 
of  touch;  if  we  do,  degeneracy  will  inevitably  result,  and 
spread  throughout  society  until  there  will  come  a  time 
when  our  nation  as  a  whole  will  either  go  to  pieces  or  be 
conquered  by  another  which  will  develop  in  the  individual 
the  highest  form  of  the  moral  sense  and  realize  the  most 
economical  form  of  expenditure  of  energy  possible  to  men,  or 
is  competent  for  such  subsequent  development ;  a  virile  sav- 
age is  preferable  to  an  effete  roue  to-day  the  same  as  he  was 
in  the  days  of  the  fall  of  Rome,  only  the  savage  to-day  may 
be  within  the  walls  instead  of  without.  Nor  dare  the  race 
in  western  civilization  fail  of  recognizing  by  reward  the  serv- 
ices of  one  in  obeying  the  moral  sense  no  matter  how  lowly 
the  individual  may  be  or  else  again  will  degeneracy  set  in, 
spread  throughout  the  race  and  western  civilization  become 
extinct.  As  nature  develops  the  sense  of  touch  by  pleasure 
and  pain,  which  invariably  act  in  the  same  way,  so  should 
the  race  develop  the  moral  sense  by  reward  and  punishment, 
only  society's  action  should  be  conscious,  be  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  social  sense. 

We  have  reached  a  stage  of  development  in  western  civili- 
zation where  further  development  cannot  take  place  except 
by  the  conscious  development  of  the  moral  and  social  senses. 
The  unconscious  and  blind  methods  that  have  brought 
humanity  up  to  its  present  high  development  have  done  all 
they  can  do;  the  belief  in  an  imaginary  God  has  accom- 
plished all  it  can  do;  if  the  race  cannot  consciously  develop 
the  moral  sense,  then  our  dream  that  western  civilization  is 
destined  to  be  the  last  wave  to  reach  the  ocean  plane  of  ulti- 


146      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

mate  socialization  of  the  race  is  not  to  be  realized  and,  as 
we  followed  Greece  and  Rome,  and  they  followed  Egypt  and 
Babylon,  our  civilization  will  be  followed  by  another  that 
will  ultimately  reach  the  goal  of  socialization  of  the  race, 
the  perfect  expenditure  of  human  energy. 

X 

The  function  of  the  moral  sense  is  to  guide  the  energies 
of  the  individual,  through  feeling,  sympathy,  int.o  the  chan- 
nels of  the  greatest  economy,  from  the  point  of  view  of 
society ;  but  it  fails  in  a  vast  civilization  like  the  Western 
World  owing  to  the  remoteness  of  the  human  beings  acting 
and  reacting  upon  one  another.  It  is  impossible  to  connect 
cause  with  effect  by  feeling  and  sympathy  alone,  in  the 
absence  of  a  scientifically  developed  imagination,  in  a  vast 
society  like  ours.  A  man  living  in  London,  through  the 
execution  of  his  desires,  his  energies,  may  wrong  another 
living  in  Omaha  and  never  know  it,  his  tort  being  accom- 
lished  by  a  system  of  customs,  laws  and  business  processes 
suited  to  life  in  small  nations  but  un  adapted  to  the  compli- 
cated civilization  of  to-day  so  far  as  developing  the  moral  sense 
is  concerned,  and  which  can  be  seen  to  be  unjust  and  iniqui- 
tous only  through  a  complete  analysis  and  synthesis  of  the 
processes  of  civilization  by  an  enlightened  social  sense. 
To-day,  from  lack  of  proper  experience,  both  the  positive 
and  negative  sanctions  of  the  moral  sense  (conscience  and 
duty)  are  often  undeveloped.  The  business  of  the  world  is 
transacted  largely  by  corporations,  private  institutions,  arti- 
ficial individuals,  incapable  of  having  a  moral  sense  and  only 
amenable  to  the  social  sense  and  the  civil  laws  of  the  land. 
Men  have  ceased  to  come  in  contact  with  one  another,  hence 
they  have  no  moral  sense  in  business  relations  or  a  very 
weak  one.  Individuals  thus  can  accomplish,  through 
morally  irresponsible  corporations,  what  their  consciences 
would  never  permit  them  to  do  as  individuals.  Corpora- 


THE   FIFTH   LAW   OF  MOTION  14? 

tions  use  individuals  as  individuals  use  nature,  only  in  the 
case  of  nature  the  individual  invents  a  machine,  while  in  the 
case  of  corporations  they  invent  laws,  business  processes, 
institutions.  There  is  no  advantage  they  do  not  take.  Their 
right  is  only  measured  by  their  might.  Corporations  show 
no  more  justice,  no  more  humanity,  no  more  mercy  in 
exploiting  individuals  than  the  individual  shows  in  exploiting 
the  energies  of  nature.  It  is  a  matter  of  business.  Senti- 
ment (the  moral  sense)  plays  a  very  small  part  in  the  busi- 
ness of  the  world  as  carried  on  by  corporations  to-day.  No 
individual  can  follow  his  moral  sense  in  competition  with 
corporations,  for  if  he  does  he  will  only  incapacitate  himself 
and  benefit  no  one.  This  is  the  condition  of  affairs  in  west- 
ern civilization  to-day.  The  vast  majority  of  persons  being 
organized  in  corporations  act  regardless  of  the  moral  sense. 
No  doubt  there  is  a  great  saving  of  wealth  in  this  system  of 
cooperation,  not  for  society  as  a  whole,  but  instead  the 
chosen  few  represented  in  the  corporation,  and  as  a  result 
the  vast  wealth  accumulated  passes  into  a  few  hands  and 
does  not  perform  a  social  function  at  all,  and  is  dissipated 
in  individual  follies  and  vices. 

The  hope  of  humanity  is  not  only  through  the  moral  sense 
but  the  social  sense,  for  the  moral  sense  alone  would  be 
utterly  incapable  of  handling  the  problems  suggested  by 
modern  civilization.  The  social  sense  must  see  the  way  all 
energy  is  to  be  expended,  and  the  race  should  base  its  insti- 
tutions, laws,  customs,  business  processes  on  scientific 
knowledge  as  well  as  feeling,  sympathy,  the  moral  sense. 
Conscience  must  be  made  acute  by  a  scientifically  developed 
imagination  which  will  trace  responsibility  through  corpora- 
tions and  classes  to  its  original  source  and  bring  the  conse- 
quences of  his  actions  home  to  the  individual  in  all  their 
vividness.  Man  must  discard  all  of  his  small  notions  of 
morality  and  sociality,  born  of  tribal  life,  and  adopt  a  moral 
and  social  nature  based  on  the  unity  of  the  race.  A  differ- 


148      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

ent  value  will  be  placed  on  civilization  when  religion  is  based 
on  morality  instead  of  theology.  Then  the  social  life  of  the 
race  will  be  for  the  benefit  of  all,  instead  of  a  favored  few, 
and  the  race  will  indeed  be  an  organization  with  definite 
structure  and  definite  functions. 

XI 

The  expenditure  of  energy  according  to  the  moral  sense  is 
virtue;  according  to  one's  individual  nature,  vice.  Honesty 
is  not  the  best  policy  to  the  individual,  but  it  is  ever  so  to 
society,  and  through  society  to  the  individual.  The  prime 
function  of  the  individual  is  to  take  advantage  of  nature,  to 
use  nature,  to  exploit  nature,  to  direct  the  energies  of  nature 
to  his  own  advantage.  Dishonesty,  injustice,  duplicity,  is 
for  the  individual  to  apply  the  same  tactics  to  other  indi- 
viduals. Man  is  by  nature  dishonest,  unjust,  deceitful.  It 
is  society  that  makes  him  honest,  just,  humane,  through 
expending  his  energy  according  to  the  fifth  and  sixth  laws 
of  motion,  the  moral  and  social  senses,  in  opposition  to  the 
fourth  law  of  motion,  the  intellect.  The  third  law  of 
motion  is  just,  that  is,  being  the  expenditure  of  energy  in 
which  the  action  and  reaction  are  equal  and  opposite.  But 
the  law  of  intellect,  that  of  expending  energy  along  the  line 
of  the  least  resistance  selected  by  the  intellect,  is  unjust;  it 
is  not  equal  and  opposite.  It  is  not  just  because  it  does  not 
balance,  the  basic  idea  of  justice.  Nature  is  taken  advan- 
tage of  by  the  intellect,  is  treated  unjustly,  judged  by  the 
moral  sense.  Thus  animal  life  is  based  upon  an  uneven 
expenditure  of  energy,  and  if  morality  extended  to  inanimate 
nature,  animal  life  would  be  based  on  a  wrong  to  nature. 
This  concept  gives  us  the  fundamental  nature  of  the  intel- 
lect and  what  its  function  is,  and  shows  us  that  man's  moral 
and  social  nature  correct  and  supplement  his  intellect,  so 
that  the  great  saving  of  energy  by  the  intellect  can  be  used 
for  humanity  instead  of  for  the  individual  alone.  The 


THE   FIFTH   LAW    OF   MOTION  149 

intellect  uncontrolled  by  morality  would  result  in  a  society  in 
which  one  individual  would  take  advantage  of  another  with 
impunity,  so  far  as  society  was  concerned,  and  the  energies 
of  individuals  would  be  wasted  in  useless  and  endless  con- 
flicts; but  the  moral  and  social  senses  correct  the  law  of 
expending  energy  by  the  intellect,  and  cause  all  human 
energy  to  follow  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  selected  by 
them,  and  all  human  energy  is  made  to  expend  itself  through 
ideals,  knowledge,  institutions,  conscience  and  duty,  in  a 
perfectly  economic  manner.  This  is  the  truth  in  the  myth 
of  the  fall  of  man.  The  function  of  the  intellect  is  to  take 
advantage  of  nature.  Its  function  is  to  avoid  the  effect  of 
the  third  law  of  motion,  that  is,  that  action  and  reaction  are 
equal  and  opposite.  It  turns  the  energy  of  nature  to  the 
advantage  of  the  one  possessing  intellect.  So  long  as  the 
intellect  acts  solely  upon  nature,  its  effect  is  purely  benefi- 
cent, but  when  it  acts  upon  other  individuals  then,  if  it  is 
uncontrolled  by  society,  it  works  injustice. 

It  is  the  function  of  the  moral  sense  assisted  by  the  social 
sense  to  furnish  forms,  ideals,  institutions,  for  the  expendi- 
ture of  human  energy  so  that  one  individual  cannot  take 
advantage  of  another,  so  that  one  individual  cannot  take 
advantage  of  all,  as  has  been  the  case  so  often  in  the  history 
of  the  human  race  and  is  so  to-day ;  for  the  governments  of 
the  world,  both  sacred  and  secular,  are  still  run  almost 
exclusively  in  the  interest  of  privileged  classes.  The  time 
will  come  when  man's  moral  and  social  senses  will  be  suffi- 
ciently developed  to  institute  a  government  of  all  by  all — 
democracy.  In  the  beginning,  owing  to  man's  imperfect 
development,  governments  could  not  be  run  in  any  other  way 
than  by  individuals,  but  the  time  will  come  when  the  state, 
the  church,  and  the  school  will  perform  their  functions  for 
all,  and  the  race  will  live  and  work  in  perfect  harmony. 
While  this  is  little  more  than  a  prophecy,  yet  it  is  well  to 
utter  it,  for  the  mere  announcement  of  the  goal,  with  a  knowl- 


150      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

edge  of  the  principles  of  its  philosophy  will  go  a  long  way 
towards  its  realization.  When  our  great  individuals  know  it  is 
to  living,  breathing,  suffering  humanity  about  them,  and  the 
great  race  that  has  gone  before,  that  they  owe  all  they  are 
and  hope  to  be  not  to  some  imaginary  God,  then  they  will 
think  many  times  before  treating  their  living  brothers  as 
they  do  the  inanimate  energies  of  nature.  It  is  society 
that  makes  the  individual  civilized.  It  is  society  that 
makes  him  good,  noble,  true,  beautiful.  It  is  the  func- 
tion of  society  to  regulate  all  of  the  energies  of  the  indi- 
vidual so  that  there  will  be  no  conflict  between  his  individual 
and  his  social  nature ;  and  the  time  will  come  when  every 
one  will  hearken  to  society  as  they  once  hearkened  to 
God. 

Chastity  is  not  a  law  of  the  individual,  but  it  is  a  law  of 
society.  Society  could  not  exist  without  it.  All  the  virtues 
are  lines  of  expending  human  energy  arrived  at  by  the  race 
during  countless  ages  of  experience  in  expending  energy  and 
are  in  opposition  to  the  original  nature  of  the  individual 
controlled  by  intellect.  A  vice  is  the  dissipation  of  human 
energy  in  opposition  to  the  moral  sense ;  a  tragedy  is  a  dissi- 
pation of  human  energy  in  opposition  to  the  social  sense. 
Intemperance,  unchastity,  dishonesty,  are  vices ;  the  wasteful 
expenditure  of  human  energy  in  industry,  in  restrictions  of 
trade,  in  senseless  competition,  in  the  conflicts  of  nations  in 
war,  are  tragedies.  Whenever  society  shall  control  the 
^expenditure  of  all  the  energies  of  the  individual,  through 
^the  moral  and  social  senses,  then  there  will  be  no  more  vices 
land  tragedies  in  civilization.  A  virtue  to  an  individual  full 
of  animal  life  is  a  cross,  until  his  nature  becomes  adapted  to 
the  moral  sense.  From  the  point  of  view  of  society,  virtue 
is  never  a  question  of  happiness  to  the  individual,  but  wel- 
fare to  the  race;  yet  in  highly  developed  individuals  virtue  is 
an  exquisite  pleasure.  Pleasure  and  pain  are  the  laws  of 
human  nature  whereby  nature  controls  the  individual,  until 


THE  FIFTH   LAW    OF  MOTION  151 

he  develops  his  intellect,  and  through  which  the  individual 
as  an  individual  reaches  the  height  of  development  whereat 
society  assumes  control  through  the  moral  and  social  senses. 
Virtue  and  religion  are  qualities  that  belong  to  the  individual 
not  as  an  individual,  but  as  a  social  being — virtue  being  a 
product  of  the  moral  sense,  religion  a  result  from  expending 
one's  energy  according  to  the  moral  and  social  senses, 

XII 

The  moral  sense  most  nearly  reaches  perfection  in  the  poor 
and  ill-favored,  for  great  individual  power  in  the  form  of 
position,  royalty,  or  wealth,  even  genius,  makes  one  obliv- 
ious to  the  punishments  and  the  rewards  of  society.  Hence 
the  world's  great  moral  reformers  have  all  been  from  the 
oppressed,  abused  and  despised  classes,  the  classes  which  feel 
the  full  impress  of  society  in  all  of  their  actions,  the  class 
that  is  responsible  to  society  for  all  it  does.  The  race  has 
ever  been  a  victim  of  its  great  individuals — tyrants,  oppres- 
sors, bigots,  geniuses,  the  insane — and  privileged  classes — 
nobilities,  priesthoods,  professions.  Great  individuals  and 
great  classes  always  pervert  and  defeat  the  moral  sense,  which 
results  in  the  degeneracy  of  the  individual  and  the  classes,  and 
often  the  decay  and  destruction  of  the  entire  nation.  Such 
may  be  the  fate  of  western  civilization.  How  happy  humanity 
will  be  when  there  will  be  no  more  great  men,  but  all  mankind 
will  be  great! — no  great  classes  but  one  great  class,  the  race  as 
a  whole ;  then  every  one  will  be  amenable  to  the  race,  prince 
and  pauper,  rich  and  poor,  savage  and  savant. 

The  only  form  of  society  in  which  the  moral  sense  can  be 
perfectly  developed  is  that  of  a  pure  democracy,  either  the 
primitive  tribe  of  individual  democracy,  or  the  ultimate 
civilization,  social  democracy.  In  all  other  forms  of  society 
there  will  be  certain  individuals  and  classes  so  powerful  that 
society  can  only  develop  in  them  very  imperfect  if  any  moral 


152       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

sense  at  all.  In  monarchies  the  king  can  do  no  wrong,  and 
in  plutocracies  the  plutocrats  can  do  no  wrong.  In  an 
absolute  monarchy  the  king's  will  is  the  highest  way  of 
expending  human  energy.  At  a  glance  one  can  see  that 
humanity  cannot  reach  the  very  highest  form  of  moral  sense 
under  any  form  of  society  except  pure  democracy.  Every 
one  must  be  considered  in  determining  the  expenditure  of 
energy  of  a  given  society,  for  it  is  from  the  feelings  and  emo- 
tions of  all  that  the  resultant  of  all  of  the  contending  ener- 
gies is  to  be  determined,  and  if  any  class  of  humanity  is  left 
out  the  resulting  moral  sense  is  a  class  moral  sense  and  not 
humanity  wide.  Our  morality  to-day  is  still  largely  class 
morality,  but  it  is  growing  wider  and  wider  as  the  race  is 
becoming  more  and  more  democratized.  Morality  begins 
with  the  one,  spreads  to  the  many  and  will  ultimately  com- 
pass all.  Everything  in  society  is  individually  initiated,  but 
inevitably  tends  to  socialization ;  and  morality  is  no  excep- 
tion. In  monarchies  humanity  develops  a  form  of  society 
independent  of  the  monarch  and  carries  the  monarch  as  a 
kind  of  incubus.  The  same  is  true  of  plutocracies.  The 
ultimate  form  of  humanity  is  that  form  of  society  in  which 
the  highest  as  well  as  the  lowest  will  be  amenable  to  the  race 
as  a  whole,  and  in  which  every  individual  will  have  an  acute 
moral  sense  which  will  control  him  as  the  moral  sense  con- 
troled  the  primitive  savage  when  not  to  follow  it  meant 
extinction  of  tribe. 

The  moral  sense  is  universal  among  mankind.  It  is  the 
first  condition  of  society.  Mr.  E.  B.  Tyler  says  : 

"The  asserted  existence  of  savages  so  low  as  to  have  no 
moral  standard  is  too  groundless  to  be  discussed.  Every 
human  tribe  has  its  general  views  as  to  what  conduct  is  right 
and  what  is  wrong,  and  each  generation  hands  the  standard 
on  to  the  next.  Even  in  the  details  of  the  moral  standards, 
wide  as  their  differences  are,  there  is  yet  wider  agreement 
throughout  the  human  race." 


THE   FIFTH   LAW    OF   MOTION  153 

XIII 

Right  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  individual  is  to  direct 
all  energy  to  the  individual's  advantage;  wrong  to  direct 
energy  to  his  disadvantage.  Eight  from  the  point  of  view  of 
society  is  to  direct  the  expenditure  of  energy  regardless  of  the 
individual's  rights  to  the  best  interests  of  society;  wrong 
from  the  point  of  view  of  society  is  to  expend  human  energy 
regardless  of  the  best  interests  of  society.  It  will  be  seen 
from  these  facts  that  right  and  wrong  are  not  only  purely 
human,  but  that  they  are  relative  terms,  and  as  society  is 
now  organized,  individual  rights  and  social  rights  are  often 
in  conflict.  But  if  society  were  perfect,  then  individual 
rights  and  social  rights  would  be  one ;  until  that  day,  how- 
ever, whenever  there  is  any  conflict  between  the  individual 
and  society,  society  in  the  end  will  always  dominate. 

A  person  cannot  do  right  unless  he  knows  how  and  is  sus- 
tained by  a  good  character,  the  residua  of  right  actions ;  nor 
can  society  do  right  unless  it  knows  how  and  is  sustained  by 
good  institutions,  the  residua  of  right  thinking  and  right 
actions.  But  the  question  may  be  asked,  is  not  knowledge 
of  right  and  wrong  innate  in  the  individual?  No  more  so 
than  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  nature  or  the  institutions  of 
society.  As  the  individual  inherits  a  bodily  structure,  which 
is  a  repetition  of  the  bodily  structures  of  his  ancestors 
together  with  the  changes  made  in  them  by  contact  with 
external  energies,  so  he  inherits  mental  and  moral  struc- 
tures, which  are  likewise  repetitions  of  the  energies  producing 
them,  being  due  to  the  internal  energies  that  produce  the 
brain  structure  and  the  external  energies  from  nature  and 
society  that  register  themselves  in  it.  If  the  bodily  struc- 
ure  does  not  receive  the  proper  experience  to  develop  it,  it 
remains  undeveloped ;  so  with  the  mental  and  moral  struc- 
ture, only  if  there  is  any  difference,  it  is  to  a  greater  extent. 
At  birth  we  are  senseless,  but  external  energies  pelting  upon 
our  sense-structures  soon  develop  them,  which  in  turn 


154      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  'HUMANITY 

develop  the  brain.  At  first  we  do  not  know  right  from 
wrong,  truth  from  error,  but  experience  in  society  soon 
teaches  us,  soon  develops  in  us  by  severe  discipline  the  moral 
and  social  senses.  Not  one  person  in  a  million  receives  any- 
thing like  the  degree  of  development  he  is  capable  of,  owing 
to  lack  of  proper  experience  in  a  scientifically  arranged  sys- 
tem of  education.  The  mind  consists  of  the  functions  of 
the  brain  structure  inherited  from  its  progenitors,  being  an 
organ  capable  of  the  same  or  similar  experiences  that  it  was 
subject  to  in  its  ancestors,  and  a  repetition  of  whatever 
energy  it  comes  in  contact  with  in  nature,  which  can  antici- 
pate the  hurtful  or  point  out  the  beneficial,  and  whatever 
energies  it  may  come  in  contact  with  stored  in  language  and 
institutions.  Whether  the  mind  be  perfect  or  imperfect 
depends  very  largely  upon  its  experience  in  nature  and 
society.  An  Anglo-Saxon  child  left  with  savages  would 
grow  up  with  the  intellect  of  a  savage,  because  its  inherited 
mental  structure,  capable  of  a  highly  developed  mind,  not 
meeting  with  the  varied  education  of  civilized  life  would 
remain  undeveloped.  The  same  is  true  in  the  development 
of  the  moral  and  social  senses.  If  an  Anglo-Saxon  child 
were  brought  up  in  savagery,  its  nascent  moral  and  social 
senses  not  meeting  with  the  ideals,  knowledge  and  discipline 
of  civilization,  it  would  have  the  moral  and  social  senses  of 
a  savage,  because  its  inherited  structures,  capable  of  highly 
developed  moral  and  social  senses,  not  being  subjected  to  the 
right  kind  of  social  experience,  would  never  develop. 
Structure  is  the  sensitized  plate ;  it  is  the  right  kind  of  expe- 
rience that  develops  the  picture. 

Of  the  two  factors  in  social  development,  heredity  and 
environment,  environment  is  by  far  the  more  powerful;  how- 
ever, this  is  not  always  noticed,  for  very  frequently  the  effect 
of  the  environment  is  taken  for  that  of  heredity.  It  is  not 
heredity  that  makes  China  stationary,  but  its  unchanging 
environment.  Take  a  Chinese  infant  away  from  China  and 


THE   FIFTH   LAW   OF   MOTION  155 

bring  it  up  in  America,  and  it  will  be  very  much  like  an 
American  child  or  vice  versa.  To  see  the  true  effect  of 
environment  upon  a  people  take  for  example  the  United 
States.  It  is  the  most  nearly  oriented  nation  on  the  face  of 
the  globe  to-day,  due  to  its  soil,  climate,  new  country,  new 
opportunities  with  nature,  vast  expanse,  liberty,  hence  free 
institutions  and  new  civilization.  Here  common  humanity 
has  had  a  chance  to  develop  equally  with  the  privileged 
classes.  It  is  the  social  environment  that  is  the  most  power- 
ful factor  in  human  development,  the  social  sense,  not 
heredity. 

XIV 

The  motive  of  all  action  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  indi- 
vidual is  feeling  (pleasure  and  pain),  the  expenditure  of  human 
energy  according  to  human  nature ;  but  from  the  point  of 
view  of  society  it  is  virtue,  the  expenditure  of  human  energy 
according  to  the  moral  sense,  resulting  in  order  and  social 
welfare.  Hence  the  conflict  between  one's  individual  nature 
and  one's  moral  nature.  But  just  as  the  animal  organism, 
through  the  senses  and  the  intellect,  reduces  the  blind  con- 
flict and  directs  the  wasting  energies  of  nature,  turning  them 
to  its  own  advantage :  so  society,  through  the  moral  sense, 
reduces  the  blind  conflict  of  individuals,  and  directs  their 
wasting  energies,  feelings  and  emotions,  turning  them  to 
social  advantage.  While  this  analogy  is  not  perfect,  it  is 
none  the  less  real,  and  only  lacks  in  perfection  because  of 
the  low  development  of  the  social  organization.  But  as  the 
animal  organism  is  in  no  sense  a  master  of  nature,  only  a 
guide  to  its  wasting  energies,  thus  making  nature  more 
nearly  perfect :  so  the  social  organism  is  in  no  sense  a  master 
of  the  individual,  only  a  guide  to  his  wasting  energies,  ma- 
king the  individual  more  nearly  perfect.  The  most  exquisite 
ecstasy  possible  to  a  human  being  is  due  to  the  performance 
of  his  social  functions;  the  most  intense  pain  is  in  being 


156       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

balked  by  society  in  the  performance  of  some  individual 
function.  The  emotion  following  social  duty  well  done  is 
religion.  The  pain  following  the  balking  of  the  expenditure 
of  individual  energy  is  a  broken  spirit,  and  ends  finally 
in  surrender  to  the  race,  resulting  in  religious  ecstasy 

As  man  becomes  more  and  more  a  social  being,  he  will 
become  more  and  more  in  harmony  with  social  control,  until 
the  time  will  come  when  social  control  will  be  in  perfect 
accord  with  individual  expenditure  of  energy,  and  the  conflict 
between  one's  individual  and  one's  social  nature  will  be  a 
thing  of  the  past.  Then  society  will  be  organized,  and  all  of 
the  energies  of  all  of  the  individuals  will  follow  the  lines  of 
the  greatest  economy,  greatest  beauty,  and  the  tendency  of 
matter  in  inanimate  nature  and  the  tendency  of  matter  in 
society  will  have  been  realized — the  perfect  individual. 

The  individual  is  the  object  in  nature  to  which  everything 
tends,  and  whenever  in  the  history  of  the  race  a  nation  or 
people  arose  which  disallowed  this  theory  of  life,  it  became 
extinct.  The  future  society  may  be  more  socialistic,  yet  it 
will  be  so  on  account  of  the  individual.  Society  exists 
because  it  is  through  it  that  the  individual  can  reach  a 
higher  development  and  for  no  other  reason.  Society  is  not 
an  end  in  itself,  because  outside  of  the  individuals  society 
does  not  exist. 

The  organization  of  society  reverses  the  plan  of  the 
organization  of  the  animal  organism.  There  all  the  units 
exist  for  the  animal  organism;  but  in  society  the  social 
organism  exists  for  the  units,  the  individuals.  And  not  to 
keep  this  distinction  constantly  in  mind  results  in  serious 
errors  in  thinking.  It  is  true  this  conception  is  seldom  put 
in  the  above  form,  usually  some  class  of  society  believing  that 
the  race  as  a  whole  should  exist  for  its  benefit ;  but  this  is  a 
more  grievous  error  than  to  think  that  the  object  of  all  is 
the  social  organism  as  a  whole.  The  real  object  is  the  indi- 
vidual, and  not  some  great  individual,  but  any  one  and  every 


THE  FIFTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  157 

one.  When  I  say  object,  I  mean  that  by  using  this  language 
I  can  express  the  tendency  of  things  in  the  universal  process 
better  than  if  I  should  say  that  the  tendency  of  things  from 
the  primal  mist  to  the  organization  of  society  has  been  to 
develop  structures  that  will  more  and  more  save  the  energies 
of  nature,  causing  them  to  be  expended  in  more  and  more 
economical  ways,  and  that  the  organism  of  all  organisms 
which  accomplishes  this  best  is  the  social  organism,  in  which 
the  intelligence  of  the  organism  is  in  the  individual  units 
instead  of  in  the  organism  as  a  whole  as  in  the  animal  organ- 
ism, and  that  the  tendency  "of  things  has  been  from  the  begin- 
ning to  create  such  a  socially  conscious  organism,  simply 
because  the  tendency  has  been  to  expend  energy  in  more  and 
more  economic  ways,  and  it  cannot  be  accomplished  in  any 
other  organism.  But  have  I  in  this  statement  used  any  the 
less  teleological  language?  Society  should  be  organized  so 
that  the  weakest  individual  could  put  all  of  the  social 
machinery  to  working  in  case  of  a  wrong,  as  well  as  the  great- 
est. Such  a  society  would  indeed  be  a  social  organism. 
Much  of  this  is  realized  in  our  life  to-day,  but  it  is  obscured 
by  false  syntheses,  and  we  fail  to  see  it  until  it  is  pointed  out 
to  us.  Progress  along  these  lines  is  often  defeated  owing  to 
a  failure  of  individuals  to  see  their  best  interests  and  society 
as  a  whole  to  enter  upon  its  conscious  existence,  a  form  of  life 
in  which  the  social  organism  will  consciously  develop  the 
moral  sense  just  the  same  as  to-day  it  consciously  develops 
intellect  in  the  individual.  Society  does  not  develop  the 
moral  sense  to-day;  its  development  is  purely  unconscious, 
blind,  as  it  ever  has  been.  In  the  future  it  will  be  perfectly 
conscious. 

XV 

Society  has  two  methods  of  perfectionment :  feeling  and 
knowledge,  the  moral  sense  and  the  social  sense.  All 
actions  of  the  individual  that  are  inimical  to  the  social 


158      THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF  HUMANITY 

organism,  the  moral  sense  punishes  by  the  infliction  of  pain ; 
all  actions  that  are  beneficial  to  the  social  organism,  which 
are  in  a  line  with  its  previous  experience,  it  rewards  with  pre- 
ferment in  society.  Thus  the  will  is  directed  into  certain 
channels  (the  virtues)  by  making  it  painful  to  flow  into 
other  channels  (the  vices).  If  the  social  organism  were  as 
intelligent  as  the  animal  organism  and  knew  all  of  the 
infringement  of  its  laws  as  soon  as  they  are  made,  as  it  will 
some  day  be  able  to  do,  when  conscience  and  duty  are  fully 
developed ;  or  if  communications  in  society  were  as  instan- 
taneous and  as  accurate  as  they  are  in  the  animal  organism, 
as  it  will  be  some  day  when  we  have  a  fully-developed  social 
sense :  then  the  method  of  securing  conduct  by  feeling,  sym- 
pathy, would  suffice  for  proximate  ends;  for  then  society, 
whenever  feeling  a  wrong  in  one  part,  would  communicate 
it  throughout  society  and  would  remedy  it  by  an  adequate 
punishment,  and  society  would  no  sooner  discover  a  merit 
than  it  would  reward  such  merit  by  immediate  success 
and  appreciation.  But  with  the  social  organism  in  its 
present  imperfect  condition,  ignorant  and  bigoted  as  it  is, 
not  more  than  half  of  the  infringements  of  its  laws  are 
discovered,  and  the  greatest  virtues  not  only  go  unrewarded 
by  society  but  are  condemned.  Hence,  in  proportion  as 
the  punishment  of  vice,  sin  and  crime  fails  through  an 
imperfect  moral  sense  in  that  proportion  is  civilization 
negatively  a  failure,  and  in  proportion  as  merit  is  unre- 
warded through  an  imperfect  moral  sense  in  that  proportion 
is  civilization  positively  a  failure. 

The  naturalistic  explanation  of  education  is  that  indi- 
viduals, unlike  animals,  in  adapting  themselves  to  their  spe- 
cies must  acquire  their  senses  to  adapt  themselves  to  their 
species  (society)  by  conscious  development.  Animals  live 
chiefly  by  instincts.  Give  them  the  external  stimulus  and 
they  act  blindly.  Not  so  with  man  in  society.  Now,  while 
the  energy  of  nature  develops  the  intellect  of  man  by  expe- 


THE  FIFTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  159 

rience  in  living,  yet  the  institutions,  knowledge,  laws  and 
ideals  of  society,  the  materials  that  develop  the  moral  sense, 
must  be  consciously  experienced  by  the  individual,  and  if 
society  does  not   supply   them    sufficiently  they  must  be 
developed  and  applied  artificially.     This  is  education.     Man 
has  two  minds,  one  in  the  structures  of  his  brain,  one  in  the 
institutions  of  society.      His  mind  in  his  brain   develops 
naturally,  although  it  can  be  helped  much  by  artificial  means 
(education) ;  but  if  the  individual  is  not  carefully  educated 
he  never  develops  his  social  mind,  the  institutions  of  the 
race,  and  as  a  result  has  no  moral  and  social  senses.     The 
chief  education  for  this  reason  should  be  moral  and  social 
and  not  as  under  our  system,  inherited  from  the  past,  intel- 
lectual and  individual.     But  this  is  natural,  for  society  as 
to-day  constituted  is  still  a  system  of  individualism  despite 
our  vast  social  organization.     Our  system  of  education  is 
due  to  having  our  moral  and  social  senses  based  on  fictions 
and  myths  instead  of  verifiable  truth.     "We  think  God  gives 
us  our  moral  and  social  senses.     We  get  them  from  the  race. 
It  is  true  we  acquire  much  of  them  symbolically,  receiving 
the  facts  of  society  under  the  fiction  of  God.     We  do  not 
teach  morality  in  our  schools,  because  we  differ  so  much  as  to 
social  sense  (yet  all  take  it  from  practically  the  same  source, 
the  Bible,  tradition)  that  we  refuse  to  teach  any  morality 
whatever.     While  we  all  ostensibly  hold  to  the  Bible  and 
Christianity,  yet  to   offer  to  teach  either  in  the  common 
schools  in  the  United  States  would  call  out  a  world  of  objec- 
tions.    We  do  not  believe  in  Christianity,   else  we  would 
trust  to  its  teachings  to  produce  beneficial  results.     From 
experience  we  know  better.     The  only  development  of  the 
moral  sense  our  youth  receive  is  from  training  in  the  family 
and  experience  in  everyday  life,  yet  the  further  development 
of  the  race  stops  for  want  of  a  consciously  developed  moral 
sense.     In  an  age  of  science  like  this,  think  of  letting  the 
very  safeguard  of  the  race  be  due  to    absorption  from  our 


160      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

surroundings,  conversation,  popular  literature,  the  theater 
and  the  daily  newspapers!  All  of  this  will  be  reversed 
under  a  scientific  society.  The  moral  sense  will  be  con- 
sciously produced  through  discipline,  the  same  as  intellect 
now  is,  and  as  a  result  individual  perfection  will  be  attained. 
If  the  individual's  moral  and  social  senses  were  perfectly 
developed  the  individual  would  hold  within  himself  both  the 
individual  and  the  race.  Just  as  man's  intellect  is  a  mirror 
of  nature  so  his  moral  and  social  senses  are  a  counterpart  of 
society.  The  moral  sense  is  a  repetition  of  society  in  the 
individual  from  the  point  of  view  of  sensibility ;  the  social 
sense  a  repetition  from  the  point  of  view  of  knowledge. 
The  moral  and  social  senses  are  in  fact  society  itself  in  us,  a 
part  of  our  constituent  being.  -  Society  is  in  us  as  a  God  to 
be  ever  present  to  watch  over  the  expenditure  of  our  ener- 
gies to  reward  the  good,  to  punish  the  bad.  The  relation 
existing  between  man's  individual  and  social  natures  will 
some  day  be  perfect.  There  will  be  no  need  of  external 
social  control,  except  for  the  purpose  of  developing  the 
moral  and  social  senses,  for  the  perfect  individual  will 
expend  all  of  his  energies  with  perfect  economy  by  the  con- 
trol of  his  moral  and  social  senses.  Society  will  not  have  to 
coerce  such  an  individual,  for  compunctions  of  conscience 
will  be  sufficient  to  deter  him  from  wrong  actions,  and  self- 
approval  will  be  sufficient  reward  for  his  good  actions  as  it 
even  is  to-day  with  the  most  highly  developed  individuals. 
"With  a  society  constituted  of  such  individuals  a  perfect 
social  organism  will  be  reached.  The  individual  will  be  just 
as  much  concerned  with  social  functions  as  with  individual 
functions.  This  is  the  acme  of  the  universal  process  of 
matter — conscious  social  existence,  directing  all  the  energies 
of  nature,  man  and  society  to  the  greatest  possible  economy, 
thereby  securing  the  greatest  organization  possible  to  the 
matter  and  energies  of  nature  and  the  greatest  happiness  of 
the  human  race. 


THE  FIFTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  161 

With  such  an  ideal  as  this  to  work  to,  social  aspiration  and 
social  undertaking  are  very  much  simplified.  Sociology  at 
last  has  a  theory  and  will  soon  have  an  art.  The  progress  of 
the  twentieth  century  will  be  phenomenal  simply  because 
for  the  first  time  in  history  humanity  has  taken  upon  itself 
its  own  salvation  and  based  its  existence  on  facts  instead  of 
fictions.  The  ultimate  result  will  be  the  socialization  of  the 
entire  race. 

Just  as  the  intellect  in  the  individual,  a  part  of  nature,  is 
a  miniature  reflection  of  all  nature  to  be  used  by  the  indi- 
vidual to  control  and  guide  the  expenditure  of  the  energies 
of  nature  to  the  advantage  of  the  individual,  so  the  moral 
and  social  senses  in  the  individual,  a  part  of  society,  are  a 
miniature  reflection  of  all  society  to  be  used  by  society  to 
control  and  guide  the  expenditure  of  the  energies  of  the 
individual  to  the  advantage  of  society,  the  greatest  advan- 
tage of  the  individual.  Thus  the  individual  comprises 
within  himself  all  of  nature  and  all  of  society  by  being  the 
object  in  which  nature  returns  upon  itself  in  self-conscious- 
ness, and  by  being  the  object  in  which  society  returns  upon 
itself  in  social-consciousnes.  It  is  in  this  way  that  all  of  the 
energy  of  the  universe  acquires  conscious  direction  and  per- 
fect economy.  Man's  wildest  dream  never  over  stated  his 
greatness,  as  this  analysis  attests. 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE  EXPENDITURE  OF  ENERGY  CONTROLLED  BY  THE  SOCIAL 
SENSE:  THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION 


The  individual  in  addition  to  having  a  moral  sense  has  a 
social  sense  consisting  of  the  registered  experiences  of  the 
individual  in  the  execution  of  his  ideas  in  society  and  what 
he  may  learn  from  language  and  institutions.  The  social 
sense  consists  of  residua  of  knowledge,  representations, 
ideals  of  society  registered  in  the  individual,  being  original 
representations  and  representations  of  others  contained  in 
language  and  institutions.  In  western  civilization  for  the 
past  two  thousands  years,  Christianity  has  been  the  accepted 
social  sense.  To-day  the  social  sense  is  passing  from  a 
supernatural  concept  of  nature,  life,  mind  and  society  to  a 
naturalistic  one.  The  ultimate  social  sense  will  be  verifiable, 
scientific,  public,  corporate  knowledge. 

It  is  through  the  social  sense  that  the  individual  under- 
stands society,  that  he  performs  his  functions  in  society, 
that  he  interprets  the  representations  of  others  contained  in 
language  and  institutions,  and  in  the  ensuing  actions  from 
any  stimuli  it  is  the  social  sense  that  controls  the  action  by 
supplying  the  most  economic  idea  as  motived  by  the  indi- 
vidual's animal  and  social  nature.  The  social  sense  is  the 
accepted  body  of  knowledge  of  a  tribe,  a  nation  or  the  race, 
commonly  designated  cult,  mythology,  superstition,  philos- 
ophy or  theology;  it  is  the  race's  knowledge  of  itself,  stored 
in  many  ways,  consisting  of  the  popular  concepts  of  the 
race,  contained  in  tradition,  public  opinion,  literature  and 

162 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  163 

institutions.  It  is  through  this  body  of  knowledge  that  the 
individual  knows  society,  and  performs  his  functions  in 
society  as  it  is  through  his  senses  and  intellect  that  he  knows 
nature  and  performs  his  functions  in  nature.  This  body  of 
knowledge  performs  the  function  of  a  sense  in  that  it 
receives,  classifies,  registers  ideas  of  society  in  the  form  of 
concepts,  and  furnishes  forms  of  expending  energy  which 
guide  and  control  the  expenditure  of  the  energies  of  indi- 
viduals in  accordance  with  it.  The  uncontrolled  and  original 
ideas  of  an  individual  produce  a  certain  low  form  of  society ; 
for  each  individual  strives  within  himself  to  realize  his  idea 
of  society,  but  as  individuals  act  from  different  points  of 
view,  much  of  their  energy  is  dissipated  in  neutralization 
and  opposition.  Naturally  in  this  great  conflict  in  the 
expenditure  of  energy  among  primitive  people,  controlled  by 
individual  ideas,  some  form  of  expenditure  will  be  better  than 
others;  then  the  conflict  instead  of  being  between  individual 
and  individual  is  between  the  individual  and  this  common 
form.  This  is  the  incipient  social  sense,  beginning  in  the 
opinion  of  an  individual,  and  ending  in  verifiable,  scientific 
truth  of  society,  after  having  passed  through  primitive  man's 
allegorical  interpretation  of  the  facts  of  nature,  life,  mind 
and  society. 

The  social  sense  determines  what  the  individual  shall 
think,  what  he  shall  know,  what  he  shall  believe,  the 
breadth  and  depth  of  his  being.  It  fixes  the  mode  of  life, 
the  status  of  the  individual,  the  position  of  art,  the  nature 
of  government,  what  kind  of  conduct  shall  arouse  the  emo- 
tion of  religion,  what  the  social  sense  itself  shall  be.  It  is 
the  social  sense  that  gives  a  value  to  things,  that  makes  one 
care  more  for  a  title  of  nobility  than  nobility  itself,  that 
determines  human  life  in  its  most  trivial  as  well  as  its  most 
sublime  operations.  It  will  be  a  perfect  social  sense  that 
will  give  a  just  proportion  to  our  life  and  determine  the 
expenditure  of  our  energy  so  that  the  greatest  amount  of 


164       THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

happiness  can  be  realized  by  the  greatest  number  of  persons 
through  the  perfect  expenditure  of  human  energy. 

The  social  sense  is  a  sixth  law  of  motion  in  that  it  improves 
the  method  in  the  expenditure  of  energy  of  the  moral  sense 
through  feeling,  by  conscious  control  through  scientific, 
verifiable,  public,  corporate  knowledge,  and  thereby  secures 
the  greatest  possible  economy  in  all  nature. 

II 

What  the  individual  is  depends  upon  the  social  sense 
which  determines  his  ideas  of  society  and  his  relation  to  it. 
In  the  Orient  he  will  be  quite  different  from  what  he  is  in 
the  Occident.  He  is  even  different  in  different  nations.  It 
is  impossible  for  an  individual  to  rise  much  above  the  society 
in  which  he  lives,  the  reformer,  or  sink  much  below  it,  the 
criminal.  The  social  sense  to-day  is  developed  by  the  sporadic 
variations  of  individuals,  hence  what  any  one  individual 
accomplishes  is  very  little.  The  same  is  true  in  its  deteriora- 
tion, but  the  increment,  no  matter  how  small,  either  effects 
the  destruction  of  a  tribe  or  nation,  or  its  perfection. 

Progress  in  morality  and  sociality  in  the  race  has  ever  been 
due  to  specialized  individuals,  to-day  called  geniuses,  reform- 
ers, heroes,  martyrs,  but  in  other  ages  they  were  called 
prophets,  seers,  poets,  heroes,  fanatics,  philosophers  and  the 
sons  of  gods.  The  society  in  which  an  individual  lives 
becomes  developed  intellectually  and  morally  beyond  the 
social  sense  then  in  vogue,  or  probably  some  class  is  using 
the  social  sense  to  oppress  humanity  as  a  whole,  as  has  been 
done  so  often  in  the  history  of  the  race.  The  individual 
contemplates  the  wrong.  It  develops  in  him  an  acute  moral 
sense  and  he  devises  ways  of  remedying  the  public  evil. 
This  is  an  incipient  improvement  in  the  social  sense.  By  con- 
stant contemplation  of  the  dire  conditions  in  society  the  indi- 
vidual becomes  specialized.  He  is  not  like  other  people.  He 
only  thinks  of  the  public  wrong  and  how  to  remedy  it.  He 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  165 

is  turned  into  a  kind  of  madman.  He  disregards  his  own  life. 
He  goes  about  and  preaches.  He  is  afraid  of  no  one.  He 
becomes  inspired.  He  is  a  prophet,  a  seer,  a  philosopher. 
Such  have  been  the  saviors  of  humanity  since  it  began, 
Buddha,  Confucius,  Jesus,  Socrates,  and  countless  others  who 
have  lived  and  died  for  humanity.  It  is  through  these 
specialized  individuals,  racial  beings  (for  the  instincts  of  the 
individual  are  almost  completely  suppressed  in  them  and 
they  are  abnormally  religious),  that  humanity  makes  any 
progress.  To-day  humanity  is  ready  for  a  new  savior,  a  new 
Buddha,  a  new  Jesus,  one  who  is  abreast  of  the  age  intel- 
lectually, and  who  has  the  heart  to  lead  the  whole  race  to 
orientation,  thence  to  democratization  and  socialization. 

The  only  progress  possible  in  society  is  due  to  these 
specialized  individuals  who  feel  and  see  that  the  expenditure 
of  the  energies  in  society  can  be  improved  upon  and  they 
arise  and  demand  a  change.  Such  was  Savonarola,  Martin 
Luther,  the  Fathers  of  the  American  Eepublic,  and  the  social 
reformers  of  to-day.  They  have  very  often  met  with  tragic 
ends,  for  the  race  is  unable  to  distinguish  between  an  inno- 
vator and  a  traitor.  And  the  sad  end  of  those  who  have 
introduced  variations  into  the  social  organism,  as  a  rule,  has 
caused  the  sanest  of  reformers  to  desist,  smother  their  feel- 
ings, suppress  their  ideas,  and  be  conservative.  As  a  rule 
our  most  conservative  people  in  their  youth  are  radicals,  but 
meeting  with  dire  opposition,  severe  discipline,  they  go  to 
the  opposite  extreme ;  besides,  youth  is  the  dynamic  stage  of 
life,  as  old  age  is  the  static. 

Most  great  reforms  in  the  social  sense  have  been  accom- 
plished by  insane  men,  persons  acting  instinctively,  blindly, 
dead  to  all  life  but  their  one  mission,  whatever  it  may  have 
been.  Such  was  Socrates  with  his  daemon,  and  Jesus  labor- 
ing under  the  delusion  that  He  was  the  Son  of  God  and 
that  He  must  die  to  save  the  world. 

Society  usually  martyrs  her  originals,  her  prophets,  her 


166        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

seers;  if  not  that,  then  they  are  ridiculed,  neglected,  perse- 
cuted and  fall  brokenhearted,  unsuccessful,  into  an  untimely 
grave.  These  specialized  individuals  are  developed  in 
society  by  lack  of  harmony  existing  between  the  moral  and 
social  senses  and  the  environment,  and  the  reformer 
attempts  a  readjustment  and  meets  with  death  as  a  result. 
The  moral  sense  is  developed  in  humanity  by  repeating  in 
humanity  through  sympathy  what  the  martyr  feels.  The 
social  sense  is  developed  in  humanity  by  repeating  in  human- 
ity by  imitation  what  the  martyr  thinks  and  believes.  That 
one  should  die  for  his  feelings  and  his  beliefs  looks  to  be 
great  injustice,  and  in  one  sense  it  is  so ;  if  the  life  of  the 
individual  were  the  end  of  life,  if  the  individual  had  no  social 
nature,  and  if  he  did  not  receive  any  compensation  for  social 
sacrifice,  if  our  life  were  only  individual,  then  indeed  the 
martyr  would  fail.  But  life  is  chiefly  social.  We  live  in 
the  greater  life  of  humanity,  and  service  to  humanity  is 
never  in  vain,  is  always  repaid  with  the  most  exquisite  joy 
imaginable  to  the  human  heart.  The  martyr's  death,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  our  social  nature,  is  the  greatest  success. 
This  is  why  the  martyr  leaps  into  the  flames  with  ecstasy  on 
his  face  and  shouts  of  joy  on  his  lips,  or  bravely,  heroically, 
does  any  great  and  good  and  grand  work,  that  men  may  be 
better,  that  the  moral  and  social  sense  may  become  more  and 
more  in  accord  with  scientific  truth.  No  doubt  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  race  there  have  been  hundreds  of  saviors,  and 
there  will  be  many  more  before  the  moral  and  social  senses 
will  finally  reach  perfection.  Not  all  the  great  religious 
phenomena  have  happened;  humanity  is  destined  to  have 
religious  awakenings  so  long  as  humanity  lasts,  only  religion 
will  become  more  and  more  rational,  until  all  of  the  dream- 
life  and  the  imaginary  world  will  be  eliminated  from  it.  Then 
it  will  be  based  on  the  facts  of  human  existence,  and  be 
experienced  by  every  individual  living  in  society.  How 
many  to-day  will  there  be  who  will  recognize  the  specialized 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  167 

individual  who  will  come  to  preach  this  new  religion,  this 
Jesus  come  to  earth  again? 

Ill 

The  race  has  always  held  sacred  the  body  of  knowledge 
constituting  its  social  sense,  let  it  be  myth,  tradition,  his- 
tory, Holy  Writ,  or  even  science,  and  the  products  of  fine  art 
have  always  been  equally  sacred.  To  criticize  the  master  is 
a  kind  of  sacrilege.  To  fly  in  the  face  of  the  social  sense  is 
blasphemy,  and  the  race  invariably  punishes  the  offender, 
often  with  death.  This  is  the  naturalistic  explanation  of 
persecution. 

It  makes  no  difference  whether  a  people's  socal  sense  be 
the  direst  superstition  or  the  purest  science,  to  disbelieve  it, 
to  oppose  it,  always  meets  with  the  same  opposition,  the 
same  punishment,  only  to-day  the  skeptic,  the  revolutionist, 
the  reformer  meets  with  his  punishment  according  to 
accepted  laws  and  is  either  martyred  or  ostracized,  depend- 
ing upon  whether  his  offence  is  against  the  moral  or  the  social 
sense.  If  ostracized,  he  is  compelled  to  exist  in  silence, 
unknown,  misunderstood,  with  charges  of  insanity  and 
immorality  for  his  highest  manifestations  of  intellectuality, 
his  truest  art  and  purest  morals.  If  martyred,  depend  upon 
it,  he  often  goes  down  in  history  as  a  criminal ;  class  society 
justifies  itself  to-day. 

It  is  by  the  work  of  specialized  individuals  that  the  social 
sense  is  developed.  They  make  discoveries,  make  inven- 
tions, originate  new  philosophies,  invent  new  ideas,  make 
true  syntheses  of  nature,  life,  mind,  society,  write  great 
poems,  paint  great  pictures — do  any  and  all  kinds  of  original 
work  not  in  harmony  with  the  social  sense  of  the  race. 
Then  they  begin  a  conflict  with  the  existing  social  sense, 
and  if  the  new  knowledge  conserves  the  energies  of  human 
beings  more  economically  than  the  old,  after  much  conflict 
the  new  product  is  adopted  as  the  social  sense  of  that  nation 


168        THE   SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

or  race;  but  very  often  the  specialized  individual  pays  with 
his  life  the  price  of  being  a  social  being,  one  of  the  saviors 
of  humanity.  Such  was  Bruno  and  Lincoln  and  countless 
others  buried  in  obloquy  and  oblivion  by  a  thankless  race. 
It  seems  great  injustice  that  Shakespeare  should  be  so  little 
appreciated  in  his  own  age,  but  when  the  great  innovation 
he  made  in  human  knowledge  is  considered  there  is  little 
wonder  from  our  point  of  view.  Michael  Angelo,  despite  his 
wonderful  originality,  only  gained  recognition  by  the  ruse  of 
burying  one  of  his  statues  and  having  it  dug  up  and  pro- 
nounced a  marvel  of  antiquity,  then  proving  that  it  was  his 
own  production. 

But  this  persistent  conservatism  has  been  of  incalculable 
benefit  to  the  race  in  stopping  unwarranted  variations  from 
the  type  in  both  social  sense  and  moral  sense.  The  race  must 
protect  itself  from  false  variations  that  would  lead  it  farther 
and  farther  away  from  adaptations  to  its  environment,  hence 
the  price  of  originality  is  hardship,  privation,  sacrifice,  and 
even  death.  The  primitive  race  could  not  have  existed  at 
all  if  there  had  been  the  right  of  individual  opinion  then 
that  we  have  to-day,  let  alone  what  we  may  have  in  a  more 
advanced  age.  Of  necessity  among  savages  all  must  believe 
alike,  think  alike,  act  alike,  live  alike.  How  sedulously  is 
conformity  to  public  opinion  even  to-day  enforced  by  every 
one !  What  is  hooted  at  more  vociferously  than  originality 
in  any  and  all  lines?  How  was  Darwin's  Origin  of  Species 
received,  one  of  the  most  original  books  ever  written?  Or 
Schopenhauer's  The  World  as  Will  and  Idea,  equally  original? 
It  has  always  been  so,  not  only  in  one  line,  but  in  all.  The 
social  organism  is  primarily  psychical.  It  is  held  together  by 
beliefs,  opinions,  feelings,  knowledge,  ideals,  hence  to  dis- 
obey the  feelings,  disbelieve  the  opinions,  dispute  the  knowl- 
edge, burst  the  ideals,  means  destruction  to  society.  The 
individual  instinctively  resents  such  a  mental  attitude  and 
such  anarchistic  conduct.  It  is  sacrilege.  It  is  impiety. 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  169 

It  is  blasphemy.  Jesus  was  crucified  for  sacrilege;  Socrates 
was  forced  to  drink  the  hemlock  for  impiety.  Bruno  was 
burned  at  the  stake  for  heresy.  Yet  the  hope  of  the  perfec- 
tion of  the  human  race  depends  upon  its  social  sense  being 
made  more  and  more  in  accord  with  scientific  truth,  as  the 
mind  of  the  individual  becomes  more  and  more  perfect  and 
discovers  it,  so  that  in  the  end  the  race  and  the  individual 
may  be  perfectly  adjusted  the  one  to  the  other,  the  object  of 
all  social  reformers  from  time  immemoral  to  the  present  date. 
The  social  sense  is  perfected  chiefly  by  specialized  indi- 
viduals, geniuses,  reformers,  who  usually  give  their  lives  for 
the  betterment  of  the  race,  a  kind  of  fructification  of 
humanity. 

IV 

Christianity  is  the  ostensible  social  sense  of  the  vast  major- 
ity of  the  people  of  western  civilization  to-day.  It  is  through 
Christianity  that  the  common  man  knows  the  race  and  the 
individual's  rights  and  duties  to  the  race.  But  Christianity 
as  a  social  sense  is  deficient  because  the  ruling  classes  do  not 
seriously  believe  it.  It  is  not  based  on  facts,  but  an  allegori- 
cal conception  of  the  facts.  Yet  with  all  its  faults  Christian- 
ity is  better  than  any  other  of  the  world  philosophies,  but  it 
fails  in  our  age,  because  it  is  not  based  on  a  naturalistic  con- 
cept of  nature,  life,  mind  and  society.  Western  civilization 
has  outgrown  Christianity  just  as  it  outgrew  polytheism. 
The  race  has  always  concealed  from  the  common  people 
the  real  facts  of  its  existence  hidden  beneath  some  myth  or 
superstition,  because  man's  first  conception  of  things  is 
allegorical,  then  scientific,  and  the  leaders  of  men  have 
always  attempted  to  perpetuate  the  first  misconception,  not 
always  with  the  best  motives.  Kings,  statesmen,  popes 
have  ever  pretended  to  believe  in  a  world  philosophy  that 
they  deny  in  almost  every  action.  It  was  so  in  Greece.  It 
was  so  in  Eome.  It  is  so  with  us  to-day.  The  ruling 


170       THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

classes  treat  the  masses  as  if  they  were  children  not  old 
enough  to  be  trusted  with  the  secrets  of  social  existence,  as 
children  are  not  trusted  by  parents  with  a  knowledge  of  sex, 
until  it  is  thrust  upon  them  and  they  are  ushered  into  a 
world  totally  unprepared  for  it.  It  has  always  been  so. 
There  has  been  much  more  conscious  deception  in  foisting  a 
false  social  sense  upon  the  world  by  interested  individuals 
and  classes  than  scientists  now  reckon.  There  was  no  more 
divinity  in  the  laws  of  Moses  than  in  those  of  Solon,  and  the 
codifiers  of  these  laws  knew  it.  And  the  advocates  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  kings  are  the  ones  who  are 
most  benefited  by  it. 

Science  is  the  true  social  sense.  It  alone  can  adjust  the 
individual  perfectly  to  society.  It  alone  can  expend  all 
human  energies  along  the  lines  of  the  most  perfect  economy. 
Science  to-day  is  the  social  sense  of  the  western  world,  but 
out  of  fear  and  deference  to  the  beliefs  and  superstitions  of 
the  masses,  the  savants  still  pretend  to  believe  in  Christian- 
ity. Science  has  all  the  badges  of  a  social  sense.  It  is  held 
sacred  by  those  who  believe  it,  and  it  will  stimulate  sacrifice 
as  quickly.  It  will  beget  persecution  as  surely.  If  any  one 
has  the  hardihood  to  make  a  real  and  sincere  and  an  appar- 
ently good  contest  of  the  principles  of  science,  he  will  meet 
with  the  same  intolerance,  the  same  unconscionableness  as  if 
he  were  contesting  a  gross  superstition  universally  believed 
in  by  a  people.  But  there  will  be  good  taste,  much  refine- 
ment and  culture  shown  in  the  persecution.* 

*A  new  scientific  idea  is  rarely  imposed  so  far  at  least  as  the  majority  of 
minds  are  concerned  by  demonstration.  It  must  not  be  supposed  that  because 
a  man  cultivates  science  that  he  is  released  from  the  yoke  of  established 
dogma.  Scientific  dogmas  are  the  most  tyrannical  of  all.  The  scientific  idea  is 
predominately  imposed  by  the  prestige  of  the  man  who  imposes  it,  and  rarely 
in  any  other  way.  It  might  be  objected  to  this  that  Darwin,  who  was  without 
title,  claim  or  authority,  had  no  prestige  when  he  made, his  investigation.  But 
it  would  be  easy  to  answer,  first,  that  his  example  is  almost  unique;  and 
second,  that  Darwin's  doctrine  was  supported  in  England  as  soon  as  it  appeared, 
by  men  who  had  much  prestige.  I  am  not,  however,  sure  if  Darwin  had  beep 
born  in  some  one  of  the  countries  where  mental  worth  is  exclusively  measured 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  171 

The  ultimate  social  sense  of  the  race  will  be  verifiable, 
public,  corporate,  scientific  truth.  The  science  of  to-day  as 
a  social  sense  will  be  little  less  transitory  than  the  unverifi- 
able  knowledge  of  tradition  and  history.  The  social  sense 
changes  as  man  develops.  It  is  no  more  durable  in  propor- 
tion to  the  intellectual  development  of  the  race  to-day  than 
the  mythological  and  theological  social  sense  of  former  ages. 
The  social  sense  is  constantly  changing.  It  is  different  in 
different  peoples,  yet,  the  race  over,  there  are  certain  funda- 
mental likenesses  in  the  different  social  senses,  and  the  time 
will  come  when  the  social  sense,  the  race  over,  will  be  the 
same  verifiable,  public,  corporate,  scientific  truth.  But 
to-day  the  social  sense  among  all  peoples,  and  certainly 
amongst  ourselves  here  in  the  United  States,  is  in  a  chaotic 
state,  unorganized,  illogical,  comprising  knowledge  extend- 
ing from  the  grossest  superstition  to  the  most  advanced  and 
verifiable  truth.  This  is  the  chief  cause  of  the  anarchy  and 
other  extreme  forms  of  revolutionary  outbreaks.  Our  youth 
are  taught  just  enough  about  the  social  organization  to  take 
advantage  of  it,  the  masses  just  enough  to  be  taken  advan- 
tage of  by  designing  individuals.  The  social  sense  will  never 
be  perfectly  scientific  until  all  scientists  have  the  moral 
courage  to  speak  in  scientific  language  against  the  rank 
ignorance  and  the  gross  superstition  inherited  from  the 
past,  and  destroy  the  individualistic  institutions  founded  on 
them  and  the  general  ignorance  of  the  public. 

V 

Knowledge  is  to  society  what  ideas  are  to  the  individual. 
Ideas  originate  knowledge  the  same  as  physical  energies 
originate  ideas.  Through  ideas  the  individual  expends  his 

by  the  number  of  decorations  it  wears,  the  immortal  book,  The  Origin,  of 
Species,  would  never  have  found  a  reader.  The  author  would  have  been  made 
to  understand  that  not  being  an  academician  or  professor,  he  could  only  make 
himself  ridiculous  by  taking  up  questions  that  had  been  long  tested  by  the  most 
illustrious  specialists.— M.  GUSTAVK  LE  BON,  Appleton's  Popular  Science 
Monthly,  Dec.,  1897,  p.  252. 


172        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

energies;  through  knowledge  society  expends  its  energy. 
The  motor  power  of  the  individual  is  the  liberated  energies 
of  the  organism  due  to  chemical  decomposition  but  guided 
by  ideas;  the  motor  power  of  society  is  feeling  and  emotions 
guided  by  scientific  knowledge,  the  social  sense.  Feelings 
and  emotions  are  energies,  and  when  conveyed  from  one 
individual  to  another  by  language,  move  society  as  a  physical 
energy  would  move  the  individual.  An  idea  is  a  channel 
through  which  an  animal  can  expend  its  energies.  Knowl- 
edge in  society  (the  social  sense)  is  a  channel  through  which 
society  can  expend  its  energies.  The  intellect  is  a  repre- 
sentation of  nature ;  the  social  sense  is  a  representation  of 
society.  Or  differently  put :  The  social  sense  is  the  regis- 
tered experience  of  the  individuals  of  the  race  in  executing 
their  ideas  in  society  and  stored  in  language  and  institution 
and  registered  in  the  mind  of  the  individual  by  education  and 
experience  with  society.  Continuous  expenditure  of  feel- 
ings and  emotions  in  society  naturally  leaves  residua  of 
themselves  in  the  individual,  which  become  a  social  sense 
for  the  subsequent  cognition,  registration  and  subsequent 
regulation  of  individual  energies  in  their  expenditure  in 
society  as  controlled  by  individual  ideas.  This  is  the 
sense  of  social  consciousness.  Social  consciousness  does  not 
mean  that  society  is  conscious  of  the  individual,  but  that  the 
individual  is  conscious  of  society.  To-day  the  individual  at 
most  is  but  conscious  of  his  particular  class ;  he  should  be 
conscious  of  the  race  as  a  whole,  and  make  it  his  class,  know 
the  structure  and  functions  of  society  as  a  whole,  and  per- 
form his  functions  in  society  intelligently  and  morally. 

The  moral  sense  controls  the  individual  instinctively;  the 
social  sense  when  perfect  will  control  him  knowingly.  The 
moral  sense  develops  an  institution  blindly;  the  social  sense 
designs  one,  plans  one,  scientifically.  It  is  the  race's  con- 
scious development  of  itself.  As  the  individual  consciously 
educates  himself,  consciously  develops  character  by  self- 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  173 

discipline,  so  can  society  artificially  devise  institutions  to 
conserve  human  energy,  to  expend  it  in  a  perfectly  economic 
manner,  ending  in  a  perfect  state,  a  perfect  system  of  edu- 
cation, a  fine  art  that  make  all  of  life  beautiful,  and  a  reli- 
gion that  is  a  reaction  from  morality,  which  really  and  truly 
will  save  humanity. 

Consciousness  in  the  mind  does  not  mean  that  the  whole 
mind  is  conscious  of  an  impression  of  some  object,  but  that 
the  residua  of  some  class  of  objects  is  conscious  of  another 
impression  of  an  individual  of  the  same  class,  let  it  be  self  or 
some  external  object.  Social  consciousness  is  the  indi- 
vidual's knowledge  of  society's  method  of  regulating  the 
expenditure  of  individual  energies,  as  controlled  by  ideas 
registered  in  the  human  brain,  cognizing  a  new  impression 
of  society's  acting  and  regulating  the  ensuing  action  by  that 
consciousness  in  opposition  to  the  individual's  nature. 
Social  consciousness  is  the  individual's  consciousness  that 
society  regulates  his  feelings  and  emotions  by  knowledge 
organized  into  institutions,  ideals  and  laws.  The  social  sense 
is  the  eye  of  society.  The  moral  sense  is  the  sense  of  touch 
of  society.  The  social  sense  sees  the  way  all  human  energy, 
feelings  and  emotions  should  be  expended;  the  moral  sense 
feels  the  way  all  human  energy,  feelings  and  emotions 
should  be  expended.  The  reason  the  race  is  so  impotent 
to-day  in  the  control  of  the  individual  is  on  account  of  the 
imperfect  development  of  the  moral  and  social  senses  in 
originating  and  evolving  perfect  forms  of  expenditure  of 
feelings  and  emotions,  knowledge,  institutions,  ideals  and 
laws,  in  opposition  to  the  expenditure  of  individual  energy 
controlled  by  individual  ideas. 

The  individual  by  experience  and  education  can  in  the  end 
expend  his  energies  through  his  ideas  perfectly  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  individual  though  may  be  in  opposition 
to  the  form  of  expenditure  imposed  by  society.  Now  if  the 
social  sense  was  even  as  perfect  as  the  individual's  intellect, 


174       THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

there  would  be  no  social  problem  before  us.  But  indi- 
viduals in  the  expenditure  of  their  feelings  and  emotions 
to-day  have  no  social  sense  to  adjust  them  to  society  now 
developed,  such  as  corresponds  to  the  individual's  intellect  to 
adjust  him  to  nature;  instead  they  have  our  inherited  erro- 
neous knowledge  and  naturally  grown  institutions  to  regu- 
late human  feelings  and  emotions,  and  as  a  result  social  life 
is  not  organic,  not  perfectly  cooperative,  not  up  to  its  maxi- 
mum economy  in  the  expenditure  of  energy.  The  social 
organization  instead  of  being  an  organization  of  all  the 
units,  by  all  the  units,  for  all  the  units,  is  an  organization 
of  all  the  units  for  the  benefit  of  a  few.  The  energies  of 
society  are  wasted  in  competition,  the  struggle  for  existence, 
war,  or  used  by  the  few  at  the  expense  of  the  many.  Really 
the  waste  we  see  in  society  now  is  almost  as  great  as  it  was 
in  nature  before  the  origination  of  life  and  mind.  Indi- 
viduals use  society  as  a  whole,  and  nations  oppose  each  other 
instead  of  rendering  service  for  service.  Nations  accumu- 
late vast  quantities  of  energy,  only  to  waste  it  in  useless 
opposition.  Think  of  twelve  million  soldiers  in  Europe  for 
the  purpose  of  national  opposition !  Human  energy  is  not 
made  to  follow  the  line  of  the  least  resistance,  but  is  dissi- 
pated by  opposition  and  resistance.  The  accepted  social 
sense  of  the  race  (Christianity)  does  not  point  the  way.  It 
is  effete,  and  science  is  not  properly  distributed  over  the 
race.  Nowhere  do  we  find  institutions  fitted  to  regulate  the 
energy  of  the  contending  human  beings.  This  is  not  only 
true  in  one  department  of  life,  but  all. 

After  centuries  of  the  law  of  repetition  and  the  law  of 
natural  selection,  we  have  our  present  wasteful  commercial 
laws.  Could  there  be  anything  controlled  more  manifestly 
by  blind  feelings  and  emotions  than  our  laws  of  trade?  The 
law  of  supply  and  demand  is  interfered  with  by  tariff  laws, 
but  only  for  the  benefit  of  the  few.  There  is  no  cooperation, 
coordination  and  statistical  estimate  of  the  products  of  the 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  175 

race  for  society  as  a  whole.  Some  of  our  large  trusts  no 
doubt  regulate  the  output,  but  it  is  for  their  own  especial 
benefit.  Everything  is  done  blindly  so  far  as  society  is  con- 
cerned. Taxes  cannot  be  levied  and  let  the  people  know 
they  pay  them ;  they  must  be  levied  by  tariffs.  Despite  our 
boasted  social  sense  of  Christianity,  everything  is  done 
blindly,  almost  as  blindly  as  nature  in  its  unconscious 
process  throughout  inorganic  and  organic  nature  before  the 
origination  of  man.  Either  society  will  adopt  verifiable 
science  as  a  social  sense  and  consciously  develop  a  moral  sense 
by  punishment  and  reward,  by  discipline,  instead  of  leaving 
morality  to  an  imaginary  God,  and  develop  a  social  sense  by 
a  scientific  system  of  education,  or  else  western  civilization 
is  destined  to  go  the  way  of  Greece  and  Rome  and  all  the 
nations  of  antiquity. 

In  the  struggle  for  existence  between  tribe  and  tribe  in 
the  development  of  humanity  that  tribe  or  nation  survived 
which  followed  most  closely  the  forms  of  expending  energy 
handed  down  from  the  past,  as  determined  by  the  internal 
law  of  repetition;  hence  that  tribe  survived  which  was  the 
most  severe  in  its  discipline  of  the  individual  when  he  varied 
the  expenditure  of  his  energies  from  the  tribal  form.  As  a 
result,  among  primitive  peoples,  we  have  caste,  invariable 
customs,  rigid  moral  and  social  senses.  Progress  was  impos- 
sible. On  the  other  hand,  according  to  the  law  of  external 
repetition,  that  tribe  which  adopted  variations  in  the  tribal 
forms,  customs,  introduced  by  specialized  individuals  and 
more  successfully  adjusting  the  tribe  to  its  environment,  not 
only  survived,  but  became  the  dominant  tribe,  or  nation,  on 
that  part  of  the  earth.  And  as  a  result,  after  centuries  of 
evolution,  we  have  progress  and  will  ultimately  have  a 
verifiable  social  sense. 

In  general  the  moral  sense  has  to  do  with  order,  the  social 
sense  with  progress,  but  owing  to  the  imperfect  develop- 
ment of  each,  the  differentiation  in  function  is  not  perfect. 


176        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

There  has  ever  been  a  conflict  between  the  law  of  internal 
repetition,  which  kept  the  tribe  as  it  was,  and  the  law  of 
external  repetition,  Avhich  Varied  the  tribe  to  adjust  it  to  the 
environment.  The  conflict  between  tribe  and  tribe,  nation 
and  nation,  race  and  race,  is  settled  in  the  struggle  for 
existence  between  the  moral  and  social  senses  of  the  con- 
testants, that  social  organization  surviving  which  has  the 
moral  and  social  senses  most  highly  developed  and  which 
expends  its  energy  in  the  most  economic  manner  possible. 
Those  nations  have  succeeded  in  nature  which  have  had  the 
law  of  internal  repetition,  resulting  in  order,  the  most  nearly 
adjusted  to  the  law  of  external  repetition,  resulting  in  pro- 
gress. And  it  will  be  so  to-day  with  the  nations  of  the  twen- 
tieth century  in  their  great  conflict  for  the  world  supremacy. 
That  nation  which  has  its  party  of  progress  coordinated  with 
its  party  of  order  so  the  social  organism  will  be  a  moving 
equilibrium  is  destined  to  be  the  nation  which  will  organize 
the  entire  human  race  into  a  social  organism. 

VI 

The  name  social  sense  to  many  will  be  a  misnomer;  yet 
the  individual  knows  the  social  organism  through  social 
knowledge,  the  inherited  knowledge  of  the  race,  exactly  the 
same  as  he  knows  nature  through  his  senses  and  intellect. 
The  individual  does  not  know  society  through  his  senses  and 
intellect,  but  through  his  social  sense,  knowledge,  institu- 
tions, laws,  ideals  and  customs.  If  the  individual  has  no 
social  sense,  and  is  so  placed  that  he  cannot  acquire  one,  he 
is  shut  out  from  all  knowledge  of  civilization,  and  despite  his 
senses  and  intellect  is  a  savage.  The  social  organism  does 
not  exist  for  the  savage,  despite  his  acute  senses  and  cunning 
intellect.  It  does  not  exist  for  any  one  but  the  oriented 
person  who  has  a  naturalistic  conception  of  nature,  life, 
mind  and  society.  A  person  who  believes  in  Christianity  really 
does  not  know  anything  about  the  social  organism  and  his 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  177 

relation  to  it.  His  knowledge  is  all  symbolical.  He  sees 
through  a  glass  darkly.  One  of  the  chief  causes  of  criminality 
is  deficiency  not  only  in  moral  sense,  but  also  in  social  sense 
and  not  alone  in  the  common  criminal  but  in  the  exploiters 
and  oppressors  and  class  rulers  of  humanity,  who  use  society 
as  a  whole  for  their  own  benefit  and  thus  bring  degeneracy 
upon  themselves  and  extinction  to  society  as  a  whole.  They 
crucify  the  race  and  do  not  know  it,  because  they  have  no 
social  sense. 

The  trouble  with  the  social  sense  of  to-day  (Christianity) 
is  that  it  not  only  fails  in  registering  true  impressions  of 
society,  but  in  directing  the  expenditure  of  individual  ener- 
gies in  society  economically  by  furnishing  scientific,  verifiable 
ideas,  because  it  is  hundreds  of  years  behind  the  most 
advanced  individuals  in  knowledge,  thus  being  so  impotent 
that  it  permits  one  individual  or  class  of  individuals  to  con- 
trol the  whole  of  society  for  their  own  individual  benefit  and 
contrary  to  the  best  interests  of  society  as  a  whole.  Most  of 
the  evil  done  to  the  race  by  powerful  individuals,  corpora- 
tions and  classes  is  done  owing  to  general  ignorance,  the 
imperfect  condition  of  the  social  sense  (Christianity).  The 
common  man  really  knows  nothing  about  society.  He  thinks 
God  runs  it.  That  society  is  a  social  organism  run  by  social 
laws  is  undreamed  of  by  him.  Social  imperfections  can  pass 
unnoticed  for  he  does  not  concern  himself  about  them.  It  is 
God's  business  to  remedy  them.  The  individual's  allegori- 
cal conception  of  nature,  life,  mind  and  society  blinds  him 
to  his  real  functions  in  society.  Christianity  preserves 
order,  but  it  can  never  promote  progress. 

When  one  contemplates  the  hideousness  of  modern  civili- 
zation (poverty,  the  struggle  for  existence,  and  war)  and 
examines  the  reasons  and  causes  for  it,  one  is  profoundly 
affected  by  the  inefficiency  and  inadequacy  of  Christianity. 
Our  religion  and  morality  are  inherited  from  a  tribal  morality 
and  religion  that  was  well  enough  suited  to  control  humanity 


178       THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

in  its  earlier  forms  of  tribes  and  nations,  but  both  are  mani- 
festly inadequate  to  control  the  vast  associations  of  humanity 
to-day  in  western  civilization.  Man's  moral  and  religious 
progress  has  not  kept  pace  with  his  political  and  intellectual 
advancement.  As  a  result,  we  have  a  vast  civilization  con- 
trolled by  a  morality  and  a  religion  only  competent  to  govern 
humanity  in  clans,  tribes  and  nations.  There  must  be  a 
widening  of  man's  moral  sense,  an  intellectualization  of  his 
religion,  to  correspond  to  his  vast  social  organization,  else 
western  civilization  will  break  up  for  want  of  internal  co- 
hesive force,  and  the  race  will  revert  to  tribal  life  again  or 
suffer  another  Dark  Ages. 

In  western  civilization  the  time  has  come  when  all  that 
can  be  done  has  been  accomplished  by  individuals  and  classes 
performing  social  functions  for  individual  or  class  benefit 
directly,  and  social  benefit  indirectly.  For  example,  the 
management  of  the  finances  of  the  various  nations  to-day 
by  individual  financiers.  And,  if  the  various  nations  are 
not  intellectually  and  morally  competent  to  perform  social 
functions  directly  beneficial  to  society  and  indirectly  beneficial 
to  individuals  and  classes,  then  internal  dissension  will  result 
in  the  overthrow  of  western  civilization  as  external  opposi- 
tion destroyed  the  great  civilization  of  Eome.  Western 
civilization  is  trembling  in  the  balance  of  forces  which  may 
end  in  its  destruction  or,  if  properly  adjusted  by  moral  and 
social  senses,  may  lead  to  a  system  of  human  association 
governed  by  intelligence  and  sustained  by  a  religion  based 
on  facts.  This  is  no  idle  alarm.  On  every  hand,  the  pulpit, 
the  press,  the  platform,  the  theater,  and  even  hi  staid  scien- 
tific works,  do  we  see  evidences  of  this  foreboding  situation. 

The  future  organization  of  the  race  must  be  achieved  in 
the  light  of  present  knowledge,  for  our  inherited  knowledge, 
Christianity,  has  proved  futile;  it  but  hinders  the  work 
now  instead  of  helping  it.  The  force  of  habit  and  custom, 
the  inertia  of  practice,  make  almost  all  of  the  moral  and 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  179 

religious  teachers  follow  blindly  and  conservatively  the 
orthodox  remedies  for  the  salvation  of  the  race,  no  matter 
their  infinite  number  of  failures  and  the  utter  inadequacy 
of  practical  results.  It  is  not  Home  or  reason;  but  it  is 
science  or  racial  retrogression,  if  not  extinction. 

The  world  is  halting  for  want  of  scientific  knowledge 
uniformly  destributed  throughout  society.  Does  any  one 
really  suppose  that  the  gigantic  evils  of  commercialism, 
imperialism  and  monopoly  would  be  tolerated  for  a  moment 
if  the  people  knew  the  causes  and  consequences  of  these 
evils? — knew  that  the  only  way  society  can  reach  perfection 
is  by  the  conscious  efforts  of  its  individuals? — knew  that  God 
is  but  an  allegory  of  society  and  it  is  the  reality  that  must  act 
now  and  not  the  substitute?  Or,  if  the  people  knew  how  to 
cooperate  so  that  all  the  energies  of  society  could  be 
expended  for  each  and  every  member  of  society,  would  they 
permit  the  dire  waste  we  see  in  competition  and  the  struggle 
for  existence?  If  the  principles  of  science  were  the  common 
property  of  all  mankind,  institutions  would  be  originated 
that  would  result  in  the  democratization  and  socialization  of 
the  whole  race  speedily  and  inevitably.  Would  the  common 
people  support  great  nobilities,  if  they  knew  anything  about 
the  naturalistic  conception  of  things?  And  would  any 
nobility  want  to  be  pseudo-noble,  if  it  for  a  moment  knew 
what  a  mistaken  conception  of  real  happiness  it  possessed? 
Certainly  not.  All  of  these  evils  exist  on  account  of  an 
imperfect  social  sense.  It  is  true  men  are  pitted  against 
one  another  in  political  partizanship :  nevertheless,  if  our 
higher  schools,  colleges  and  universities  would  call  a  spade  a 
spade  and  would  show  in  specific  language  with  illustrations 
the  iniquities  of  class  government,  the  inadequacy  of  Chris- 
tianity, social  democracy  would  soon  be  an  assured  thing. 
The  press,  the  pulpit,  the  bar  would  be  amenable  to  the 
newly-developed  social  sense  and  orientation  and  socialization 
would  soon  follow. 


180        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

The  function  of  the  senses  and  the  intellect  is  to  adjust 
man  to  nature;  the  function  of  the  social  sense  is  to  adjust 
him  to  society.  The  intellect  consists  of  inherited  mental 
structures  due  to  experience  with  the  energies  of  nature; 
the  social  sense  consists  of  knowledge,  of  social  processes, 
and  institutions  due  to  experience  with  human  beings  in 
society.  In  the  case  of  the  intellectual  structure  it  is 
inherited  within  the  animal  organism ;  in  the  case  of  the 
social  structure  it  is  inherited  without,  but  the  social  process, 
institutions  and  knowledge  of  society  becomes  organized 
within  the  human  mind  through  education  and  experience 
in  society,  and  creates  the  faculty  of  the  social  sense,  which 
in  apprehending  and  directing  human  energies  in  society 
performs  the  same  functions  that  a  physical  sense  does  for 
the  physical  energies  in  nature. 

VII 

The  conflict  between  man's  individual  nature  and  his  social 
nature  is  a  constant  source  of  unhappiness.  The  energies  of 
nature  are  invariably  and  universally  present,  hence  the 
intellect  of  man  is  more  uniformly  developed  than  his  moral 
and  social  senses.  The  social  organization  develops  the 
social  sense  by  subjecting  the  individual's  nature  to  it,  and 
this  conflict  is  a  great  source  of  unhappiness  to  the  indi- 
vidual until  it  is  ultimately  accomplished.  Owing  to 
humanity's  imperfect  development,  only  favored  individuals 
are  susceptible  to  perfect  development,  not  the  whole  race 
by  any  means.  That  constant  conflict  going  on  in  us,  in 
which  that  which  we  would  do  we  cannot  do,  and  that  which 
we  do  we  would  not  do,  is  our  individual  natures  opposing 
our  social  natures.  It  is  individual  vice  being  opposed  by 
social  virtue.  It  is  the  individual's  ignorance  leading  to 
social  crime.  It  is  the  individual's  giving  up  his  individual 
ways  of  expending  his  energies  and  adopting  the  ways  sug- 
gested by  society. 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  181 

The  social  sense  is  representations  of  the  energies  of 
society,  knowledge,  experience  of  the  race,  stored  in  institu- 
tions, traditions,  language,  ideals,  and  as  the  individual  has 
little  of  such  experience,  unless  carefully  educated  in  all  of 
the  sciences  and  arts,  in  comparison  with  his  experience 
with  nature  (and  we  make  no  provisions  for  such  experience 
in  our  system  of  education,  owing  to  the  usurpations  of 
the  professions,  each  preempting  vast  fields  of  knowledge 
for  itself),  the  development  of  the  social  sense  in  the 
individual  to-day  is  incipient  and  imperfect.  The  chief 
cause  of  immorality,  intellectual  anarchy,  lack  of  solidarity, 
want  of  unity  in  the  race  to-day  is  the  fact  that  society  con- 
sciously attempts  through  education,  the  education  of  the 
church,  to  foist  a  dead  social  sense  (Christianity)  upon  a 
living  race,  and  neglects  to  teach  the  individual  the  true 
social  sense  as  thought  out  by  scientific  men,  being  veri- 
fiable, scientific,  public,  corporate  knowledge. 

The  thing  that  education  should  do  is  to  teach  one  what 
nature  is  and  how  to  live  in  it;  what  society  is  and  how  to 
adjust  one's  self  to  it.  As  the  mind  is  a  repetition  of  the 
energies  with  which  it  comes  in  contact,  the  first  necessity  of 
mental  development  is  actual  physical  experience  with  the 
energies  of  nature  to  develop  the  senses  and  the  intellect, 
and  as  the  moral  and  social  senses  are  a  repetition  of  human 
energies  with  which  they  come  in  contact,  the  first  condition 
of  the  development  of  the  moral  and  social  senses  is  actual 
experience  with  the  energies  of  society  to  develop  the  moral 
and  social  senses.  Our  system  of  education  is  sadly  ineffi- 
cient, being  based  on  traditional  philosophy,  when  it  should 
be  based  on  nature  and  the  functions  of  the  senses  and  the 
intellect,  and  on  society  and  the  nature  of  the  function  of 
the  individual  in  society.  Thus  education  should  be  two- 
fold: individual,  enfolding,  developing  and  drawing  out  the 
senses  and  the  intellect,  and  secondly,  social,  developing  the 
moral  sense  through  discipline  and  the  social  sense  through 


182        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

instruction.  To-day  education  has  no  philosophy,  it  exists 
from  momentum  acquired  hundreds  of  years  ago.  It  works 
blindly  as  among  savages,  and  does  not  fit  the  individual 
either  to  live  in  nature  or  to  live  in  society.  This  is  the 
chief  cause  of  the  lack  of  coordination,  lack  of  cooperation, 
solidarity  and  unity  we  see  in  the  social  organization  to-day. 

The  conflict  of  our  individual  nature  with  our  traditional 
social  sense  vitiates  our  system  of  education.  Our  system  of 
education  instead  of  imparting  ideas  to  the  student  so  he  can 
understand  nature,  life,  mind  and  society,  really  keeps  him 
from]  understanding  them.  This  is  done  purposely  by  the 
teachers  of  the  traditional  social  sense  for  fear  the  novice 
will  find  out  the  fictitious  nature  of  Christianity  and  contra- 
dict it,  disobey  it,  subvert  it  with  his  individual  nature.  On 
account  of  this,  much  that  passes  for  the  materials  of  educa- 
tion in  our  higher  learning  stops  thought  instead  of  stimu- 
lating it — languages,  pure  mathematics,  illogical,  dry  history, 
and  trashy  literature  called  classics.  The  mind  must  have 
facts,  ideas,  concepts,  inspiration,  enthusiasms,  discipline, 
not  tasks,  examinations  the  goal  of  some  degree.  No  pro- 
fessor could  maintain  his  position  for  any  time  who  taught 
his  pupils  how  to  think  about  nature,  man  and  society; 
while  the  professor  who  teaches  that  in  Christianity  we  have 
reached  ultimate  knowledge  on  all  subjects,  has  a  string  of 
degrees  using  half  of  the  letters  of  the  alphabet,  and  a  life  job. 
The  best  education  is  an  honest,  candid,  free  search  for 
truth,  under  the  guidance  of  a  teacher  with  the  motto: 
"Prove  all  things  and  hold  fast  that  which  is  good." 

It  certainly  should  be  the  main  object  of  education  to 
develop  in  our  youth  true  moral  and  social  senses  by  instruc- 
tion and  discipline,  but  in  fact  in  our  higher  schools  of 
learning,  the  development  of  the  moral  and  social  senses  is 
left  wholly  to  chance.  One  can  graduate  with  the  highest 
honors  with  never  a  day's  study  about  society  and  with  no 
more  moral  character  than  a  prize-fighter.  Our  schools  are 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  183 

unorganized,  nnsystematized,  being  based  upon  the  inherited 
theory  of  education  unmodified  by  the  science  of  to-day. 

Every  teacher  in  a  university  struggles  with  every  other 
teacher  to  see  which  one  can  worry  the  student  most  with 
dry,  hard  tasks,  exasperating  examinations,  brain-racking 
quizzes ;  that  teacher  being  deemed  the  best  who  can  produce 
the  most  dismay,  despair  and  disaster.  There  is  no  attempt 
to  develop  character — that's  left  to  God.  The  intellect  and 
the  moral  and  social  nature  of  our  youth  are  expected  to 
grow  and  flower  under  such  treatment.  The  courses  of 
study  in  modern  universities  are  made  up  of  dead  and  foreign 
languages,  pure  mathematics,  a  smattering  of  physical 
science  (usually  taught  by  a  theologian,  so  there  will  be  no 
danger  of  the  pupil  getting  too  much  science),  a  bit  of  trashy 
literature  called  classics,  no  fine  art  at  all,  and  so  much  of 
sociology  as  is  compatible  with  the  ruling  political  ideas  and 
theological  creeds, — each  course  of  study  conflicting  with 
every  other  course,  there  being  no  unity,  no  plan  and  no 
more  system  than  one  finds  in  the  wishes  and  hopes  of 
the  youth's  parents.  Only  by  accident  has  the  college  gradu- 
ate a  better  concept  of  life  when  he  graduates  than  when  he 
enters;  for  it  is  the  avowed  object  of  college  training  to  hold 
persons  in  their  childhood  beliefs  instead  of  making  them 
original  thinkers.  It  would  ruin  a  college  to  have  it  said  of 
it  that  it  turned  out  men  such  as  Darwin,  Spencer,  and  Scho- 
penhauer. 

Education  should  be  the  artificial  development  of  the 
senses  and  the  intellect,  and  the  artificial  development  of 
the  moral  and  social  senses,  and  the  materials  of  education 
should  be  selected  with  this  object  in  view.  Above  all  a 
rigid  discipline  should  be  maintained  to  develop  good  habits 
and  an  irreproachable  character,  so  that  when  our  youth 
embarks  upon  life  there  will  be  some  surety  of  their 
proving  invincible  to  all  temptations.  Then  society  will  be 
speedily  perfected  and  our  ideal  of  civilization  realized. 


184       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF    HUMANITY 

The  theory  of  education  which  places  great  stress  upon 
what  it  calls  mental  training,  such  as  one  is  supposed  to  get 
from  studying  Latin  and  Greek  and  pure  mathematics,  is 
based  upon  a  wrong  theory  of  the  mind.  Muscle  to  a  large 
extent  can  be  developed  by  one  kind  of  exercise  and  used  in 
another,  but  mind  cannot;  it  consists  of  ideas  and  is 
developed  by  giving  it  ideas  and  experience.  If  the  mind 
can  be  developed  by  other  material  than  what  constitutes 
it,  why  not  have  a  boy  who  is  studying  Latin  cram  on 
Greek  when  he  is  about  to  be  examined  in  Latin?  It 
will  strengthen  his  mind  and  he  will  come  out  with  first 
honors,  or  ought  to,  if  the  theory  be  true.  It  is  possible 
to-day  to  graduate  from  a  modern  university  and  yet  not 
have  any  more  ideas  about  nature,  life,  mind  and  society 
than  an  intelligent  ten-year-old  child.  The  modern  college 
education  is  a  travesty.  Mind  is  developed  by  coming  in  con- 
tact with  mind-producing  energies,  and  by  nothing  else.  Sight 
is  developed  by  light,  touch  by  contact,  hearing  by  vibra- 
tions of  the  atmosphere,  and  intellect  can  be  developed  only 
by  suggesting  ideas  to  it,  by  experience  in  nature,  knowledge 
contained  in  language,  institutions  and  society.  The  moral 
and  social  senses  do  not  grow  by  chance.  They  are  devel- 
oped by  actual  experience  and,  if  not  developed,  do  not  exist. 
By  the  time  a  child  is  seven  years  old,  it  should  have  had 
developed  in  it  by  punishment  and  reward,  by  discipline,  an 
acute  moral  sense.  Every  infringement  of  morality  by  a 
child  should  be  carefully  punished,  not  necessarily  by  physical 
methods,  but  by  mental  and  moral;  and  every  successful 
undertaking  involving  right  living  by  a  child  should  meet 
with  certain  reward,  not  necessarily  physical,  but  mental  and 
moral.  The  moral  sense  develops  much  earlier  in  life 
than  the  social  sense.  By  the  time  a  youth  is  twenty  he 
should  possess  a  perfect  social  sense,  developed  in  him  by 
systematic  investigation  of  the  phenomena  of  nature,  life, 
mind  and  society.  Education  should  consist  in  acquainting 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  185 

the  rising  generation  with  ideas  that  will  adjust  it  perfectly 
to  nature,  and  concepts  that  will  adapt  it  perfectly  to  the 
race.  Education  should  be  a  fitting  of  the  individual  to  live 
in  nature  and  society,  making  him  a  self-adjusting  unit  in 
the  social  organism.  This  is  the  problem  that  confronts 
humanity  to-day,  and  it  will  not  be  solved  except  by  a  nat- 
uralistic moral  and  social  sense  and  the  discarding  forever 
of  our  supernatural  notions  of  the  moral  and  social  senses. 
Our  youth  can  be  made  intellectual  and  moral  and  social 
only  by  the  most  careful  discipline  and  the  freest  education, 
based  on  a  naturalistic  psychology,  a  scientific  sociology  and 
a  true  philosophy  of  religion. 

Another  falsity  in  the  current  theory  of  education  is  that 
one's  mental  capacity  is  unlimited;  that  the  brain  can  be 
filled  with  this  mass  of  knowledge,  then  with  that,  then  the 
other,  and  come  out  the  more  able  to  be  filled  again  with 
still  other  forms  of  knowledge.  A  good  mind  may  not  be 
destroyed  by  such  a  system  of  education,  for  the  best  minds 
are  the  ones  that  forget  all  rubbish,  but  a  common  mind  is 
ruined  by  being  filled  with  rubbish  in  the  form  of  many 
languages,  abstract  sciences,  metaphysics  and  the  current 
illogical  knowledge  of  the  race — the  traditional  social  sense — 
Christianity.  Liebnitz  says :  "So  far  from  our  mental  pow- 
ers being  sharpened  by  excess  of  study,  on  the  contrary, 
they  are  blunted."  A  great  French  writer  said :  The  best 
education  one  can  receive  is  to  forget  all  one  learns  at  college. 

The  only  possible  way  really  to  know  anything  is  to  study 
the  thing  itself,  let  it  be  an  object  of  nature,  a  function  of 
the  individual  or  an  institution  in  society.  I  do  not  depre- 
ciate books,  they  are  one  of  the  greatest  inventions  of  the 
race,  but  experience  should  interpret  them  and  they  inter- 
pret experience.  Institutions  should  be  studied  in  opera- 
tion. Our  education  is  vitiated  by  being  devoid  of  a 
psychology,  a  sociology  and  a  philosophy.  Education  should 
be  chiefly  social  and  not  intellectual.  The  highly  educated 


186      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

individuals  of  society  to-day  are  almost  all  of  them  philoso- 
phical anarchists.  They  are  individualists.  They  are  really 
criminals.  Instead  of  first  teaching  a  youth  how  to  secure  a 
physical  competence,  how  to  make  a  living  in  agriculture, 
commerce,  manufacture,  business,  or  at  skilled  or  common 
labor,  then  to  spend  the  rest  of  his  time  in  moral  and  social 
education,  the  practical  part  of  our  highest  education  is 
devoted  to  the  art  of  earning  money  through  the  professions, 
making  wealth  an  end  in  itself,  instead  of  a  means  to  exist- 
ence. The  only  stores  which  can  be  laid  up  with  any  cer- 
tainty of  proving  a  blessing  to  our  offspring  are  improvement 
in  the  social  organism — all  other  assistance  to  children  more 
often  incapacitates  than  helps  them.  The  foolish  social  life 
of  the  aristocracy  the  world  over  will  be  replaced  by  intelligent 
service  to  the  race.  Woman  is  very  competent  to  do  relig- 
ious work,  especially  in  training  the  young,  but  the  modern 
smart  set  society  has  diverted  her  from  such  work  to  a  great 
extent.  All  of  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  our  life  is  material- 
ism hedged  in  by  an  impotent  and  unbelievable  theology. 
No  wonder  [the  [perversions  of  life  under  such  conditions, 
such  a  moral  sense,  such  a  social  sense.  As  a  result,  despite 
our  great  intellectually,  society  has  scarcely  any  more  power 
in  controlling  individuals  now  than  in  less  advanced  ages, 
and  the  civilized  individual,  with  all  of  his  marvelous 
resources,  lives  a  life  only  a  little  above,  only  a  degree  larger, 
than  the  savage  with  his  dire  privations.  While  we  have  a 
high  state  of  intellectuality  in  isolated  individuals,  yet, 
owing  to  our  imperfect  moral  and  social  senses,  our  every-day 
life,  taken  from  beginning  to  end,  with  its  struggle  for 
existence,  its  panics,  its  poverty,  its  insecurity,  its  war,  is 
little  better  than  savagery.  Three  of  the  great  religions  of 
the  race,  Brahminism,  Buddhism  and  primitive  Christianity, 
have  taught  asceticism,  the  denial  of  life,  as  the  true  way  to 
live.  The  philosopher  Schopenhauer  has  all  but  demon- 
strated pessimism,  and  it  is  the  common  belief  of  all  that  if 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  187 

death  ends  all  then  life  is  not  worth  living.  And  if  the 
teachings  of  Christianity  are  true,  it  would  be  better  by  far 
never  to  have  been  born  than  to  run  the  risk  of  eternal 
damnation.  Our  situation  here  on  earth  from  the  popular 
point  of  view  was  given  to  me  in  such  striking  language  by 
a  laboring  man,  when  I  was  a  child  of  seven,  that  I  remem- 
ber it  yet.  He  said:  "It  is  live  hard,  work  hard,  die  hard, 
and  go  to  hell  at  last!" 

That  the  life  of  society,  the  race,  can  be  as  fully  appointed 
as  the  life  of  the  individual,  that  the  social  organism  can  be 
developed  with  mutually  dependent  parts  coordinated  and 
unified,  are  concepts  held  by  few  but  are  possible  of  objectifi- 
cation  as  certain  as  the  race  shall  exist  another  century. 
That  the  individual  can  derive  as  much  happiness  from  his 
social  nature  as  he  now  enjoys  from  his  individual  nature  is 
a  truth  not  dreamed  of  by  the  individualist,  he  believing 
that  the  painful  conflict  he  is  undergoing  with  society  to-day 
is  interminable.  But  just  as  love  is  not  love  until  it  is 
conquered,  so  the  individual  does  not  come  into  his  full 
existence  until  he  has  been  conquered  by  society. 

To  offer  to  teach  religion  in  our  schools  would  give  rise  to 
a  cry  of  horror,  for  it  would  bring  up  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  only  a  concept  of  sectarianism,  yet  the  philosophy  of 
religion  is  exactly  what  should  be  taught  in  our  colleges  and 
universities — religion  stripped  of  superstition  and  based  on 
facts.  Nothing  shows  us  more  truly  that  our  theological 
social  sense  has  fallen  into  desuetude  than  the  fact  that 
religion  is  not  seriously  studied  in  our  great  institutions  of 
learning.  In  our  conscious  efforts  at  developing  morality 
and  sociality,  owing  to  our  intellectual  anarchy  and  hypo- 
critical theology,  lack  of  a  verifiable  social  sense,  we  sin- 
gularly let  alone  the  teachings  most  essential  to  life  in 
oriented  society.  There  never  has  been  a  time,  and  there 
never  will  be  a  time,  when  humanity  will  ever  be  able  to 
accomplish  great  social  development  except  under  religious 


188      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

emotion,  and  with  almost  complete  absence  of  religion  from 
the  lives  of  our  leaders,  thinkers,  writers,  statesmen  and 
common  people  today,  we  proclaim  that  religion  cannot  be 
based  on  fictions  that  we  know  to  be  false,  but  must  be  based 
on  a  scientific  social  sense  that  we  know  to  be  the  truth,  then 
social  perfection  will  speedily  follow.  Scientists  avoid  the 
study  of  religion  because  they  know  it  is  based  on  fictions 
and  do  not  care  to  be  disgraced  by  being  called  agnostics, 
infidels  and  atheists;  and  theologians  avoid  the  study  of 
religion  because  they  see  with  very  slight  investigation  that 
a  belief  in  God  and  immortality  will  have  to  be  given  up 
and,  thinking  that  these  beliefs  will  carry  with  them  religion 
itself,  they  center  all  of  their  powers  on  retaining  a  belief 
in  God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  whether  true  or  not. 
The  result  is  the  condition  of  affairs  we  see  in  western  civili- 
zation to-day — intellectual  anarchy,  moral  insanity  and 
human  misery. 

The  average  person  here  in  America,  while  much  higher  in 
development  than  the  average  European,  is  a  being  still 
nominally  controlled  by  our  traditional  moral  and  social 
senses.  His  crude  social  concepts  he  picks  up  any  place, 
and  his  inaccurate,  erroneous  and  absurd  intellectual  con- 
cepts, and  his  ugly  and  commonplace  notions  of  the  beauti- 
ful, he  finds  in  public  opinion  and  tradition.  His  intellect 
is  acute,  cunning,  fine,  but  his  sense  of  the  beautiful,  moral 
and  social  is  that  of  a  savage.  The  crying  need  of  the 
race  to-day  is  to  make  religion  the  fundamental  emotion  of 
our  life,  as  it  has  ever  been  in  all  ages  of  the  race  that  have 
made  an  impression  on  the  life  of  humanity.  Eeligion  to 
most  scientists  is  an  excrescence  on  the  social  organism  to 
be  gotten  rid  of  in  the  course  of  future  enlightenment ;  to 
the  religious  it  is  blind  worship  of  the  supernatural,  devoid 
of  intellectuality.  The  truth  of  the  matter  is,  religion  is  an 
emotion  that  adumbrates  man's  chief  social  function,  the 
protection,  the  perpetuation  and  perfection  of  the  race  by 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTI05T  189 

conscious  effort,  and  is  an  emotion  that  always  follows  from 
such  effort  and  should  not  be  a  reaction  to  anything  else. 

In  the  face  of  all  of  this  failure  in  education,  in  morality 
and  sociality,  I  boldly  proclaim  the  necessity  of  a  scientific 
moral  and  social  sense.  The  school  must  assume  the  func- 
tions of  the  church  and  supplement  the  home,  and  thereby 
fit  the  individual  for  socialization  intellectually,  morally  and 
socially,  and  the  life  of  society  will  be  determined  by  predic- 
tion and  calculation  as  a  product  of  art  or  science.  This 
will  be  living,  not  being  afraid  to  live. 

VIII 

The  chief  difference  between  an  uncivilized  and  a 
civilized  man  is  a  matter  of  social  sense.  Their  intellects 
are  equally  acute.  It  took  just  as  much  intellect  in  the 
Stone  Age  to  make  an  ax  as  it  takes  to-day  to  make  a  Gat- 
tling  gun.  Galton  estimates  that  the  Greeks  were  even 
superior  to  us  of  to-day ;  but  this  no  doubt  is  one  of  those  odd 
theories  that  scientific  men  allow  themselves  to  entertain  in 
order  to  amuse  themselves  by  trying  to  prove,  knowing  all 
the  time  they  are  erroneous  but  original.  The  American  is 
the  most  intellectual  being  ever  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and 
if  not  brought  to  destruction  from  lack  of  moral  and  social 
development,  bids  fair  to  outstrip  all  competitors  as  the  race 
which  will  finally  overrun  the  whole  world.  The  chief  differ- 
ence in  races  that  counts  in  evolution  is  a  difference  in  moral 
and  social  sense  and  not  a  difference  in  intellectuality  among 
individuals.  The  difference  in  intellectuality  among  indi- 
viduals is  the  perfection  that  causes  preferment  among  indi- 
viduals in  the  universal  process,  but  it  is  a  difference  in 
moral  and  social  sense  among  tribes,  nations  and  races  that 
causes  preferment  in  the  social  process.  It  has  ever  been 
the  superior  social  sense  that  has  the  ability  to  spread 
throughout  society,  causing  it  to  become  organized,  unified, 
which  has  always  been  adopted,  regardless  of  the  fact  whether 


190       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

or  not  it  is  the  truth,  and  the  nation  adopting  such  a  social 
sense  has  always  triumphed  over  all  rivals.  And  that  nation 
to-day  which  has  the  ability  to  adopt  verifiable,  scientific 
truth  for  its  social  sense  is  certain  to  be  the  predominant 
nation  in  the  immediate  future,  because  science  h;is  the 
advantage  over  all  other  kinds  of  knowledge  of  being  more 
nearly  correct,  and  is  thus  more  competent  to  adapt  man  to 
society  and  society  to  its  environment  than  any  other  knowl- 
edge that  the  race  has  believed.  In  the  present  conflict  of 
nation  with  nation,  that  nation  is  bound  to  conquer  which 
has  a  social  sense  that  will  enable  it  to  effect  the  most  com- 
plete organization,  an  organization  in  which  every  member 
has  his  function  to  perform ,  coordinated  in  a  natural  or  racial 
cooperation,  and  who  is  justly  compensated  for  his  labor. 
In  such  a  society  all  energy  will  be  expended  in  the  most 
economic  manner  possible,  and  it  will  force  all  other  nations 
to  a  similar  cooperative  expenditure  of  energy  or  exterminate 
them  by  absorption. 

Whether  a  body  of  knowledge  ever  becomes  a  social  sense 
or  not  depends  upon  its  ability  to  spread  throughout  society, 
and  whether  or  not  scientific  knowledge  will  ever  become  the 
social  sense  of  the  race  depends  upon  the  intellectual 
development  of  the  individuals  in  control  of  the  various 
nations  to-day.  The  common  man  is  incompetent  to  change 
his  social  sense  except  by  assistance  from  society  through 
education.  It  is  true  that  the  social  sense  of  the  race  slowly 
metamorphoses  from  one  form  to  another,  and  it  is  also  true 
that  the  social  sense  can  change  radically  by  artificial,  educa- 
tional means,  as  we  have  seen  several  times  in  the  history  of 
the  race.  We  may  as  well  come  to  it  first  as  last — the  only 
solution  of  the  social  problem  is  a  scientific  social  sense,  and 
we  may  as  well  begin  teaching  it  at  once  and  drop  out  all  of 
our  effete  subjects  of  study  in  our  colleges  and  universities. 

The  perfect  organization  of  the  intellect  is  attained  when 
external  energies  give  a  verifiable  representation  of  nature, 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  191 

and  the  social  sense  will  be  perfect  when  it  gives  a  verifiable 
representation  of  human  energies,  feelings  and  emotions,  a 
verifiable  representation  of  the  social  organization  and  man's 
relation  to  it  and  society's  relation  to  man,  so  that  the  indi- 
viduals of  society  will  know  really  what  it  is,  are  conscious  of  it, 
and  then  society  can  consciously,  intentionally  devise,  invent 
institutions  which  will  enable  individuals  to  expend  their  ener- 
gies so  that  none  will  be  wasted — so  that  all  of  the  ener- 
gies of  nature  and  of  society  will  be  expended  with  perfect 
economy.  Whenever  the  social  sense  shall  be  a  system  of 
knowledge  that  accurately  represents  society  as  the  intellect 
represents  nature,  determining  the  individual  in  his  methods 
of  living,  and  society's  action  as  an  organism,  by  correctly 
directing  the  expenditure  of  the  energies  of  the  individual 
into  channels  of  the  greatest  economy,  and  the  energies  of 
social  organization  in  all  of  its  actions,  thus  adjusting  it  to 
the  environment  as  a  whole,  then  the  socialization  of  the 
race  will  be  perfect  and  the  most  economic  form  of  expending 
energy  on  earth  will  have  been  attained  in  the  most  elaborate 
organization  possible  to  be  evolved  from  the  factors  of  nature, 
matter  and  energy. 

Christianity,  the  social  sense  of  to-day,  is  a  system  of 
knowledge  inherited  from  the  effete  knowledge  of  the  past. 
The  individual  knows  that  much  of  it  is  false,  that  much  of 
it  is  only  symbolically  true  but,  owing  to  deficient  moral  sense, 
it  is  allowed  to  stand  in  the  way  of  the  adoption  of  scientific 
knowledge  of  society  in  all  of  its  relations  and  institutions. 
This  is  no  idle  criticism,  but  as  sincere  an  indictment  as  ever 
seer  made  against  his  age  and,  if  not  heeded,  the  result  will 
be  as  disastrous  in  its  consequences  as  any  other  in  history. 
Interested  individuals,  the  plutocrats  and  the  aristocrats,  do 
not  want  the  social  organization  perfect,  for  they  live  off  its 
imperfections.  What  would  become  of  the  professions  if  the 
common  man  was  intelligent  enough  to  get  along  without 
them?  With  what  consternation  would  the  financiers  of  the 


192      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

world  receive  a  proposal  to  change  the  present  individual- 
istic system  of  money  for  one  that  would  only  conserve  the 
good  of  society  as  a  whole,  providing  the  proposal  was 
backed  with  a  power  great  enough  to  accomplish  the 
change?  A  panic  is  the  weapon  the  privileged  classes  use  to 
hold  up  the  masses  and  make  them  deliver.  The  success  of 
an  institution,  instead  of  proving  it  to  be  good,  is  often  proof 
that  it  is  bad.  The  test  of  the  goodness  or  badness  of  an 
institution  is  the  greatest  happiness  of  the  greatest  number 
resulting  from  it,  not  its  ability  to  exist.  The  social  organ- 
ization to-day  instead  of  being  for  society  as  a  whole  is  clearly 
for  the  benefit  of  the  few.  The  greatest  problem  humanity 
every  attempted  to  solve  is  to  make  the  social  organization 
serve  the  race  as  a  whole,  instead  of  a  favored  few.  In  the 
beginning  the  only  possible  way  to  effect  a  social  organiza- 
tion was  to  allow  individuals  to  effect  it  for  their  own  especial 
benefit;  but  that  this  primitive  and  unjust  system  of  social 
organization  is  the  ultimate  possibility  of  social  organization 
is  manifestly  untrue,  and  the  time  will  come  when  society  will 
drop  all  forms  of  individualism  and  take  up  socialism  in 
some  form  or  other  as  the  ultimate  form  of  society. 

Nature  has  no  choice  in  means,  and  if  economy  cannot  be 
effected  in  one  way  it  can  in  another,  and  it  never  stops  to 
deliberate,  but  adopts  the  most  available  way — so  it  was  in 
the  origination  of  social  institutions.  But  whenever,  in  the 
development  of  nature,  life,  mind  or  society  a  first  method 
has  brought  a  structure  up  to  where  a  more  economic 
method  can  be  introduced — for  example,  chemical  compounds 
being  able  to  initiate  expenditure  of  energy  according  to 
mind;  or  individuals  being  able  to  expend  energies  in  society 
by  the  moral  sense — this  has  been  done;  and  whenever 
society  has  reached  a  sufficiently  high  development,  it  will 
originate  institutions  that  will  expend  all  social  energy  from 
the  point  of  view  of  society,  and  individualism  will  be  a 
thing  of  history.  Whenever  in  the  history  of  the  race  the 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  193 

moral  and  social  senses  become  sufficiently  strong  to  take 
charge  of  the  social  organization,  they  will  do  so.  Then 
society  will  cease  to  be  run  for  individual  and  class  benefit — 
the  privileged  few — and  be  run  for  the  social  benefit  of  all, 
because  the  social  expenditure  of  energy  is  the  most  eco- 
nomical possible  to  the  elements  and  energies  of  nature,  and 
will  inveitably  be  adopted  by  the  factors  now  at  work  in 
nature  and  society,  despite  all  reactionary  measures  to  pre- 
vent it.  To  contemplate  the  problem  in  this  light  shows 
what  is  yet  to  be  done  in  the  coming  years. 

The  great  trouble  in  the  adjustment  of  the  race's  tradi- 
tional institutions  to  its  newly  evolved  concepts  of  to-day  will 
be  to  preserve  all  the  good  there  is  in  the  old  forms  and  yet 
adopt  all  of  the  good  in  the  new  concepts.  As  trees  some- 
times are  improved  by  grafting,  so  must  our  new  concepts  be 
grafted  on  old  institutions  that  are  apparently  absolutely 
useless,  Little  will  be  accomplished  in  a  social  way  until 
man's  morality  is  more  highly  developed  by  making  religion 
a  reactional  emotion  from  everyday  life  rightly  lived,  instead 
of  from  inherited  beliefs  and  meaningless  ceremonies.  To 
any  one  who  can  think  at  all,  the  proposition  that  the  social 
organization  should  be  for  the  good  of  all  instead  of  a  few  is 
certainly  beyond  dispute,  but  when  it  comes  to  applying  the 
concept  specifically,  then  the  common  man,  fearing  that  he 
will  be  personally  injured  in  the  radical  change  inaugurated, 
flies  back  to  his  traditional  thought  and  ways  of  doing  things 
and  accepts  present  ills  rather  than  undergo  painful  changes 
that  can  be  avoided.  But  it  will  not  always  be  so.  There 
is  a  dynamic  in  human  life  strong  enough  to  accomplish  this 
great  social  evolution  if  it  is  rightly  invoked — religion. 

IX 

That  the  function  of  the  various  sciences  when  coordinated 
and  perfected  is  to  frame  institutions  for  the  economical 
expenditure  of  human  energy  may  be  a  new  conception, 


194      THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF   HUMANITY 

yet  it  is  perfectly  true.  Science  is  the  new  social  sense  that 
the  race  has  evolved  which  is  to  take  the  place  of  the  effete 
social  sense  of  tradition  and  history,  and  the  sooner  we  see 
it  the  better  it  will  be  for  the  race.  Just  as  Rome  in  the 
third  century  did  not  notice  that  polytheism,  was  dead 
and  that  Christianity  was  the  new  living  social  sense,  so 
to-day  we  do  not  see  that  Christianity  is  dead  and  the  new 
science  is  the  living  social  sense.  It  is  well  that  such  is  the 
case,  then  the  shock  of  the  change  can  be  avoided.  It  is 
like  lifting  the  curtain  and  letting  the  light  shine  in  where 
at  first  too  much  light  would  have  been  injurious.  To  take 
away  Christianity  to-day  will  not  be  shocking  when  the  race 
sees  it  has  a  surer  social  sense  in  science.  If  science  is  not 
for  the  purpose  of  guiding  human  actions,  what  is  it  for? 
And  if  Christianity  has  not  failed  to  expend  the  energies  of 
our  race  in  western  civilization,  what  would  be  a  failure? 
There  must  be  a  choice  between  science  and  theology,  for 
they  are  in  direct  opposition,  reconcile  them  as  we  may. 
The  conflict  between  naturalistic  science  and  supernat- 
ural theology  will  terminate  with  the  destruction  of  the- 
ology. Science  and  theology  are  fundamentally  differ- 
ent. There  can  be  no  harmony  between  them.  They 
exclude  each  other.  Either  science  or  theology  must  go,  and 
the  Catholic  church  has  always  seen  that  science  was  its 
mortal  enemy,  and  fought  it  accordingly  for  hundreds  of  years 
openly,  to-day  surreptitiously,  but  Protestantism  has  often 
played  blindly  into  the  hands  of  science.  Cardinal  Newman 
was  right.  It  is  either  Rome  or  reason.  And  the  sooner 
the  people  of  western  civilization  see  that  inevitably  science 
must  take  the  place  of  our  effete  theological  social  sense  the 
better  it  will  be  for  us. 

It  is  true  that  most  institutions  are  a  result  of  unconscious 
growth,  but  not  all;  in  fact,  the  United  States  itself  is  due 
to  conscious  formation,  besides  at  least  half  of  our  laws  are 
statutory.  Social  life  is  just  beginning  to  be  conscious. 


THE  SIXTH  LAAV  OF  MOTION  195 


Heretofore  it  has  been  almost  entirely  instinctive.  It  has 
followed  the  law  of  repetition  and  the  law  of  natural  selection 
blindly,  and  follows  them  blindly  to-day.  The  change  that 
is  sought  to  be  introduced,  and  which  will  be  introduced,  is 
simply  to  follow  the  law  of  external  repetition  consciously,  as 
we  do  in  making  mechanical  inventions.  That  the  social  life 
of  the  future  will  be  conscious  is  certainly  within  the  purview 
of  the  scientific  knowledge  of  to-day,  and  when  the  function 
of  scientific  knowledge  is  fully  grasped  then  will  it  be 
organized,  systematized,  and  be  taught  to  our  youth  as  a 
sacred  social  sense,  instead  of  our  effete  system  of  knowledge 
to-day.  "With  the  law  of  repetition  to  guide  our  statesmen, 
there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  institutions  will  be 
invented  which  will  realize  the  fondest  hopes  of  our  social 
prophets. 


The  method  of  action  through  verifiable,  public,  corporate 
knowledge  open  to  the  social  organism  to-day  is  to  direct 
human  energy  into  right  channels  by  concepts  under  the 
control  of  verifiable,  public,  corporate  knowledge.  Igno- 
rance will  be  considered  a  kind  of  crime,  mistake  a  species  of 
vice.  Once  more  it  will  be  heresy  to  advocate  error;  but 
he  will  be  the  greatest  who  adds  to  human  knowledge.  The 
most  important  thing  in  life  will  be  what  an  individual 
feels,  what  he  believes,  what  he  thinks.  When  the  social 
organism  can  direct  action,  control  conduct,  by  knowledge, 
then  every  individual  will  have  imparted  to  him  concepts 
undreamed  of  now  in  his  limited  sphere,  and  the  moral 
sense  through  discipline  will  become  acute  to  actions  and 
conduct  that  it  is  now  insensible  to.  All  energy  not 
expended  according  to  knowledge  will  be  deemed  wrong. 
Even  a  virtue  not  lived  according  to  knowledge  will  be 
considered  a  vice.  The  moral  sense,  supplemented  by  the 
social  sense,  will  still  be  the  medium  of  communication  in 


196      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

society  and  will  inflict  punishment  and  bestow  reward,  but 
as  dictated  to  by  the  social  sense.  The  more  nearly  knowl- 
edge is  distributed  throughout  society,  the  more  nearly  will 
the  social  organism  be  like  the  animal  organism.  A  law  of 
the  animal  organism  now  executes  itself:  When  science 
becomes  the  adopted  social  sense  of  western  civilization, 
conscience  and  duty  will  become  so  broad  and  so  acute  that 
the  social  organism  will  do  likewise. 

Conscience  and  duty  will  become  so  acute  that  they  will 
do  for  society  what  the  sense  of  touch  does  for  the  animal 
organism,  and  the  time  will  come  when  the  social  sense, 
believed  in  by  the  individual,  will  be  so  perfect  that  it  will 
adjust  him  to  society  as  effectivley  as  the  individual's  senses 
and  intellect  now  adjust  him  to  nature.  The  analogy 
between  the  animal  organism  and  the  social  organism  will 
sometime  be  complete. 

The  social  sense  supplements  the  moral  sense  by  widening 
its  scope,  by  making  it  self-acting,  by  making  the  punish- 
ment of  discipline  through  conscience  and  the  pleasure  of 
reward  through  self -approbation  within  the  individual,  not 
by  society  through  external  punishment  and  external  prefer- 
ment. Shame,  remorse  and  the  stings  of  conscience  come 
from  unused  concepts  in  one's  mind  put  there  by  society, 
which  ache  for  the  energies  that  have  been  otherwise 
expended.  Society  will  ultimately  control  the  individual  by 
making  the  reward  of  pleasure  within  the  individual,  not  by 
society  through  external  reward,  but  by  self-approval,  self- 
appreciation,  self-aggrandizment,  religious  ecstasy;  the  feel- 
ings coming  from  duty  consciously  done,  resulting  from  the 
expenditure  of  energy  through  the  most  economic  concepts 
yet  originated  by  society.  The  time  will  come  when  the 
moral  sense  will  be  so  acute  through  discipline,  sympathy, 
imagination,  that  the  sufferings  of  one  part  of  the  social 
organism  will  be  felt  by  the  moral  sense  throughout  society 
the  same  as  by  the  sense  of  touch  in  the  animal  body  now ;  a 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION"  197 

hurt  in  one  part  of  the  organism  is  felt  by  the  sense  of  touch 
throughout  the  body  and  is  relieved  by  the  intellect  directing 
the  expenditure  of  energy  in  the  most  economic  channel  pos- 
sible, and  when  this  is  realized  in  society  through  the  moral 
and  social  senses  then  Solon's  concept  of  a  perfect  state  will 
be  realized — one  in  which  a  wrong  makes  those  who  are  not 
injured  just  as  indignant  as  those  who  are  and  thereby 
secures  a  remedy  for  evils  that  cannot  fail.  The  time  will 
come  when  the  social  sense  will  do  for  the  social  organism 
what  the  intellect  does  for  the  animal  organism. 

If  the  social  sense  were  as  highly  developed  as  the  moral 
sense,  the  social  organism  would  soon  be  perfected,  but 
unfortunately,  while  the  greater  portion  of  the  people  of 
western  civilization  ^ould  do  what  is  right,  owing  to  having 
an  acute  moral  sense,  they  do  not  know  how,  owing  to 
deficiency  in  a  verifiable  social  sense.  The  good  people  of 
the  world  are  peculiarly  deficient  in  ideas  with  which  to 
execute  their  goodness.  They  are  incapable  of  organization 
except  against  changes  in  the  social  sense.  They  can  organ- 
ize to  oppose  a  change  in  our  traditional  social  sense,  but  are 
incapable  of  organizing  to  fight  the  evils  that  can  only  be 
destroyed  by  a  scientific  social  sense;  hence  the  evils  of 
civilization — poverty,  the  struggle  for  existence,  oppression, 
exploitation,  war — find  shelter  and  protection  under  Chris- 
tianity. The  good  people  of  the  world  oppose,  neutralize 
and  waste  one  another's  energies  through  ignorance,  error 
and  superstition.  They  accomplish  nothing.  It  is  owing  to 
the  imperfect  condition  of  the  social  sense  that  the  moral 
sense  is  still  imperfect.  The  good  people  of  the  world  are 
still  insensible  to  poverty,  the  struggle  for  existence,  war,  so 
that  they  accept  these  tragedies  as  inevitable  and  thus 
become  a  party  to  the  misdirection  of  the  energies  that  pro- 
duce them.  "Thou  shalt  know,"  is  no  commandment  in 
the  creed  of  Christendom;  yet  knowledge  is  the  way,  the 
light,  salvation.  It  is  impossible  for  the  moral  sense  to 


198       THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF   HUMANITY 

reach  anything  like  perfect  development  except  through  a 
scientific  social  sense.  It  is  as  impossible  to  avoid  executing 
a  law  of  the  intellect  as  it  is  to  keep  a  law  of  nature  from 
acting.  That  twice  two  are  four  is  as  inevitably  true  as  that 
the  attraction  between  two  bodies  varies  directly  as  the  pro- 
duct of  their  masses,  and  inversely  as  the  square  of  the  dis- 
tance between  their  centers  of  mass,  the  law  of  gravitation. 
And  the  law  of  the  social  sense  is  as  inevitable  as  the  laws  of 
nature.  Whatever  society  demands  of  the  individual  the 
individual  does,  no  matter  if  its  demands  are  antagonistic  to 
the  functions  of  the  individual.  If  the  social  sense  were 
verifiable  knowledge,  its  demands  being  inevitable,  a  perfect 
civilization  necessarily  would  follow.  The  only  way  to  live 
in  society  and  be  perfectly  happy  and  honorable  is  to  be 
always  ready  and  willing  to  sacrifice  one's  individuality  for 
society  whenever  there  is  a  conflict  between  individual  rights 
and  social  rights.  To  yield  self-interest  to  social-interest  is 
the  greatest  virtue  and  is  always  compensated  for  by  relig- 
ious ecstasy. 

XI 

If  the  social  sense  cannot  adapt  all  the  individuals  of 
society  to  society,  then  degeneration  inevitably  follows,  first 
degeneracy  of  the  unadapted  individuals,  then  degeneracy  of 
society  as  a  whole,  which  results  in  racial  extinction.  His- 
tory is  replete  with  nations  that  have  gone  to  pieces  on 
account  of  moral  and  social  degeneracy  and  this  may  be  eur 
^fate,  depending  upon  our  ability  to  perfect  a  social  sense  which 
fwill  furnish  the  individual  with  social  concepts  that  will 
adapt  him  to  society.  There  is  nothing  mysterious  about 
this.  It  is  simply  working  out  the  problems  of  human 
relations  and  disseminating  the  knowledge  throughout 
society  and  having  society  as  a  whole  control  all  individuals 
by  it.  The  two  questions  are :  Have  we  the  morality  to 
accomplish  this?  Have  we  the  knowledge?  Many  will 


THE  SIXTH  LAW  OF  MOTION  199 

answer  Yes,  and  be  the  first  to  resent  a  scientific  concept  of 
society  if  it  conflicts  with  inherited  theological  and  political 
beliefs;  others  will  say  Yes,  but  be  the  first  to  object  if 
scientific  morals  do  not  coincide  with  theological  morals. 
All  are  willing  to  accept  the  truth  if  they  can  dictate  the 
terms;  but  truth's  terms  are  always  unconditional.  The 
entire  civilized  Avorld  would  be  perfectly  willing  to  accept  the 
naturalistic  concept  of  things  if  you  would  or  could  leave 
them  God  and  immortality — dear  on  account  of  their  hal- 
lowed associations  and  supposed  benefits  flowing  from  them. 
We  must  prove  all  things  and  hold  fast  to  that  which  is 
good,  even  if  upon  trial  our  choicest  beliefs  do  not  stand  the 
test,  and  we  are  brought  from  heaven  to  earth,  from  immor- 
tality to  mortality. 

Mr.  W.  H.  Hudson  says:  "Beghot  once  described  as  the 
sharpest  of  all  pains  the  pain  of  a  new  and  unwelcome  idea. 
Often  a  fresh  truth  will  bring  us,  not  comfort,  or  a  sense  of 
satisfaction,  but  the  reverse  of  these — doubt,  misgiving, 
heart  anguish,  agony  of  mind.  The  peace  and  joy  which  we 
once  found  in  an  older  order  of  thought  may  henceforth  be 
ours  no  longer;  while  in  the  place  of  the  philosophy  of  life 
which  had  grown  rich  and  sacred  to  us  through  association, 
we  may  have  to  accept  a  new  theory  of  the  universe  and  man 
which  for  a  time  at  least  may  seem  chilly,  bleak  and  depres- 
sing. In  such  a  crisis  as  this — and  few  serious-minded  men 
of  our  generation  can  hope  to  escape  some  mental  upheaval 
attendant  upon  the  progress  of  thought — we  must  nerve  our- 
selves with  the  high  doctrine  of  veracity:  'Let  fact  be  fact, 
and  life  the  thing  it  can,'  first  the  truth  as  we  learn  it  and 
then  whatever  of  happiness  or  comfort  may  be  gained  from 
it  for  ourselves  and  others." — Appleton's  Popular  Science 
Monthly,  June,  1898,  pp.  199,  200. 

Whenever  the  moral  sense  is  humanity  wide  and  the  social 
sense  is  verifiable,  scientific  truth  imparted  to  the  entire  race 
by  a  system  of  education  based  upon  psychology,  sociology 


200      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

and  philosophy, not  history,  tradition  and  theology,  then  the 
race  will  be  oriented  and  democratized  and  will  enter  upon  a 
conscious  career  and  accomplish  wonders  undreamed  of 
to-day,  such  as  the  control  of  climate,  the  origination  of 
food  from  the  elements,  the  creation  of  life,  communication 
with  other  planets,  the  conscious  organization  of  society,  the 
perfection  of  the  individual  and  the  socialization  of  the 
entire  race. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE     SUPREME     LAW      OF     ETHICS:     THE     EXPENDITURE     OF 

ENERGY     ACCORDING    TO    THE     MORAL    AND 

SOCIAL    SENSES 

I 

There  is  no  intrinsic  goodness  or  badness  in  human  energy, 
will,  desire  and  emotion.  Like  all  energy  it  is  good  or  bad 
according  as  it  passes  through  the  proper  channels,  is  con- 
trolled by  proper  ideals  and  institutions.  The  thunderbolt 
that  strikes  a  person  dead,  if  rightly  guided,  through  tele- 
graph wires,  would  have  sent  a  message  of  love.  And  the 
will  that  murders,  if  rightly  guided,  through  the  moral  and 
social  senses,  would  have  sacrificed  itself  for  others.  All 
evil  in  society,  life  and  nature  is  but  undirected,  misdirected, 
wasted  energy  due  to  the  imperfect  development  of  nature 
and  life  or  the  infancy  of  the  social  organism  and  the  igno- 
rance of  the  individual. 

The  first  condition  of  perfect  morality  is  perfect  knowl- 
edge, verifiable  knowledge;  for  without  verifiable  knowledge 
scientific  institutions  cannot  be  originated.  The  most 
important  condition  of  right  conduct  is  right  concepts;  for 
it  is  impossible  for  human  energy  to  expend  itself  rightly 
unless  it  has  the  proper  avenues  of  expenditure,  concepts 
being  nothing  more  nor  less  than  ways  of  expending  human 
energy.  And  the  only  way  to  have  right  concepts  universal 
is  to  make  them  the  basis  of  our  system  of  education  and 
have  corporate  society  teach  them  to  the  rising  generation. 

The  second  condition  of  perfect  morality  is  to  have  society 
invariably  enforce  its  laws,  concepts  of  right  and  wrong; 

201 


202       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

such  enforcement  being  the  necessary  discipline  to  develop 
the  individual's  moral  sense.  The  truth  back  of  all  punish- 
ment is  that  it  is  the  negative  way  of  developing  the  moral 
sense,  as  reward  is  the  positive  way.  It  is  the  experience  of 
punishment  and  reward  that  teaches  the  individual  right 
from  wrong,  develops  the  moral  sense ;  it  is  experience  in 
expending  energy  according  to  right  concepts,  knowledge, 
ideals,  that  teaches  individuals  truth  from  error,  that 
develops  the  social  sense,  the  two  necessary  conditions  of 
right  conduct  in  society. 

If  knowledge  makes  the  individual  responsible  to  the  race 
and  if  knowledge  makes  the  race  responsible  to  the  individual, 
which  is  the  truth,  then  not  to  know  is  the  cardinal  sin  in 
the  supreme  law  of  ethics.  Ignorance  is  no  better  defense 
in  morality  than  in  law.  Shakespeare  is  right,  there  is  no 
sin  but  ignorance.  Genesis  is  right,  knowledge  gave  birth 
to  right  and  wrong.  Eight  is  the  line  of  the  least  resistance 
in  the  expenditure  of  human  energy  from  the  point  of 
society,  and  human  energy  like  all  energy  always  follows  the 
line  of  the  least  resistance  when  known.  And  the  true 
Bible,  the  authority  in  the  disputes  about  right  and  wrong, 
is  the  facts  of  nature  and  society  as  we  find  them,  and  that  is 
truth  which  corresponds  to  these  facts  and  satisfies  the  equa- 
tion of  mind  with  nature.  Truth  is  the  verification  of  a 
mental  representation  with  its  external  cause. 

The  supreme  law  of  ethics  is  to  expend  all  energy  through 
the  moral  and  social  senses,  through  a  moral  sense  that  is  a 
perfect  representation  of  the  race  from  the  point  of  view  of 
feeling,  sympathy,  sensibility,  through  a  social  sense  that  is 
a  perfect  repetition  of  the  race  from  the  point  of  view  of 
knowledge;  thus  the  individual  has  within  himself  the 
supreme  law  of  ethics,  so  that  all  energy,  both  public  and 
private,  can  be  expended  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance, 
the  greatest  economy. 

It  is  folly  to  say  that  persons  will  not  do  right  when  they 


THE  SUPREME  LAW  OF  ETHICS  203 

know  right,  know  that  right  is  the  most  economic  way  of 
expending  energy.  In  the  struggle  for  existence  nations 
vying  with  one  another  always  adopt  any  improvement  in 
the  expenditure  of  energy  that  puts  them  in  the  van  in  com- 
petition. Hence,  inevitably,  that  nation  which  adopts  the 
supreme  law  of  ethics  in  the  expenditure  of  its  energy  will 
not  only  survive  itself  but  will  force  the  nations  of  the  world 
to  its  system  of  living  or  else  exterminate  them.  America  is 
leading  the  western  civilization  to-day  on  account  of  its 
intelligence,  and  whatever  nation  adopts  the  supreme  law  of 
ethics  will  certainly  be  the  ultimate  world-power  of  the  race. 
The  apparent  perversity  to  do  wrong,  regardless  of  a 
knowledge  of  right  and  wrong,  that  is  seen  among  indi- 
viduals to-day  comes  from  the  fact  that  the  individual  has 
found  out  from  his  own  experience  that  the  prevalent  con- 
ceptions of  right  and  wrong  taught  by  Christianity  are  not 
the  most  and  least  economic  ways  of  expending  energy,  that 
they  are  in  fact  untruthful,  unscientific,  inaccurate.  As  a 
result,  the  individual  does  not  follow  them.  He  sees  their 
falsity,  but  he  does  not  see  that  the  theological  social  sense 
is  an  allegorical  interpretation  of  the  facts.  He  takes  it 
literally  and  rebels  against  society.  It  is  impossible  to 
adjust  such  individuals  into  an  organization  of  mutually 
dependent  parts  with  mutually  cooperative  functions.  This 
is  the  condition  of  western  civilization  to-day.  As  a  result, 
most  of  the  energy  of  society  to-day  is  wasted  in  rank  indi- 
vidualism, crime,  oppression  and  the  struggle  for  existence. 
There  will  be  vice,  sin,  crime,  oppression,  the  struggle  for 
existence,  so  long  as  arbitrary,  allegorical,  unverifiable, 
untruthful  concepts  are  taught  as  right  and  wrong,  because 
strong  individuals  will  not  follow  them,  will  live  and  die 
independent  of  society,  wasting  their  energies  in  opposition 
and  neutralization,  regardless  of  social  control.  As  no  one 
who  has  learned  to  know  that  7  +  6  =  13  will  ever  after  agree 
to  let  them  equal  11,  so  no  one,  individual  or  nation,  who 


204      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

once  learns  the  right  methods  of  expending  human  energy 
will  ever  lapse  into  the  wrong  methods  again;  for  the  right 
method  of  the  expenditure  of  human  energy  invariably 
secures  happiness  and  advancement,  whereas  the  wrong 
method  invariably  results  in  pain  and  retrogression.  But  so 
long  as  society  itself  does  not  know  right  from  wrong,  the 
most  and  least  economic  ways  of  expending  human  energy 
from  the  point  of  view  of  society,  just  so  long  will  strong  and 
powerful  individuals  be  perverse  in  obeying  society,  and 
civilization  will  be  for  the  few  and  supported  by  the  many. 

II 

There  is  not  a  system  of  morality  or  sociocracy  extant  that 
does  not  still  maintain  the  distinctions  between  good  and  evil 
as  intrinsic  states;  none  show  the  true  relation  of  the  indi- 
vidual to  society,  and  the  true  method  of  combating  the 
bad,  that  is,  unsocial  methods  of  expending  human  energies 
by  the  method  of  expenditure  through  the  moral  and  social 
senses,  conscience  and  duty,  and  public  corporate  knowl- 
edge. That  good  and  evil  are  purely  relative  terms  human- 
ity at  large  does  not  see,  and  that  the  energies  producing 
the  greatest  evil,  if  directed  by  the  moral  and  social  senses, 
would  end  in  good,  is  a  concept  beyond  the  common  man's 
ken,  yet  one  surely  true  and  consonant  with  the  principles 
of  the  supreme  law  of  ethics. 

That  man's  individual  nature  unsubdued  by  his  social 
nature  is  the  source  of  the  myth  of  the  devil  or  evil,  that  his 
triumphant  social  nature  is  the  source  of  the  myth  of  a 
supernatural  God  or  good,  are  the  facts  behind  the  symbolism 
of  Christianity,  and  what  all  should  know  and  have  the  cour- 
age to  teach  is  the  profound  truth  that  an  analysis  of  civil- 
ization demonstrates  and  the  supreme  law  of  ethics  sanctions. 

We  have  reached  a  stage  in  human  evolution  when  per- 
sons understanding  the  truth  are  in  duty  bound  to  impart 
it  to  their  fellows.  The  common  man  is  amply  intelligent 


THE  SUPKEME   LAW  OF  ETHICS  205 

enough  to  discard  the  allegorical  method  of  understanding 
nature  and  society  and  be  intrusted  with  the  plain  facts  as 
they  are,  at  last  to  be  initiated  into  life  in  the  highest  phase 
of  existence — socialization.  Tell  the  truth  to  the  rising 
generation.  Don't  destroy  its  young  mind  by  feeding  its 
craving  for  knowledge  with  antiquated  myths.  Tell  it  tho 
truth.  What  insight  into  nature,  life,  mind  and  society 
may  the  rising  generation  not  get,  if  at  first,  before  thinking 
out  a  true  theory  of  things,  it  does  not  have  to  get  rid  of  a 
false  one  taught  it  by  fond  and  foolish  parents,  interested 
individuals  and  superstitious  priests.  Don't  betray  a  child 
by  telling  it  a  known  falsehood  when  you  know  the  truth. 
Such  moral  culpability  is  inexcusable  to-day.  It  is  in  our 
childhood  that  our  false  and  effete  social  sense  is  taught  us, 
for  most  persons  have  their  social  senses  grounded  by  the 
time  they  are  ten  and  perfected  by  the  time  tbey  are  twenty. 
A  naturalistic  theory  of  things  is  more  easily  understood  by 
a  child  than  a  supernatural  one,  for  it  need  not  be  under- 
stood all  at  once.  A  naturalistic  theory  of  things  keeps 
one  thinking  until  one  does  understand  it,  whereas  the 
great  fault  with  supernaturalism  as  a  social  sense  is  that  by 
accepting  it  further  investigation  is  stopped. 

Ill 

The  function  of  the  social  sense  is  to  regulate  the  virtues 
as  well  as  the  vices  of  the  individual,  to  bring  about  that 
equilibrium  of  individual  and  social  function  which  precludes 
conflict,  waste  of  energy,  and  results  in  a  social  organism 
that  is  paralleled  in  the  equilibrium  of  nature  and  the  func- 
tions of  the  intellect  brought  about  by  the  intellect,  which 
we  call  life.  As  the  individual  starts  out  opposing  nature 
and  ends  by  controlling  it,  so  the  race  starts  out  opposing 
the  individual  and  ends  by  controlling  him.  The  conflict  in 
each  case  is  one  of  adjustment,  the  energies  of  the  indi- 
viduals adjusting  themselves  to  the  energies  of  nature,  and 


206        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

the  energies  of  the  race,  the  combined  energies  of  all  indi- 
viduals, adjusting  the  energies  of  each  and  every  individual 
to  the  race  as  a  whole. 

Or,  differently  put :  The  human  race  before  the  origina- 
tion of  society  is  paralleled  by  nature  before  the  origination 
of  life.  Nature  was  a  conglomeration  of  different  elements, 
compounds  and  organisms,  conditioned  by  antagonistic  phys- 
ical energies;  the  race  was  a  conglomeration  of  different 
individuals,  families,  clans  and  tribes,  conditioned  by  antag- 
onistic psychical  and  sociological  energies,  human  feelings, 
emotions  and  ideas;  and  as  nature  developed  the  individual 
by  registering  in  him  its  energies,  thus  creating  the  senses 
and  the  intellect,  so  that  in  time  he  could  not  only  direct 
his  own  energies  into  the  channels  of  the  greatest  economy 
from  his  own  point  of  view,  but  also  direct  the  energies  of 
nature,  so  the  human  race,  consisting  of  a  conglomeration  of 
individuals,  families,  clans  and  tribes,  furnished  another  set 
of  energies,  psychical  and  sociological  energies,  feelings, 
emotions  and  ideas,  which  in  expending  themselves  in  society 
registered  themselves  in  the  individual,  creating  in  him  the 
moral  and  social  senses,  so  that  the  race  could  direct  the 
energies  of  the  individual  into  the  channels  of  the  greatest 
economy,  not  only  conserving  the  energies  of  the  individ- 
ual as  such,  but  the  combined  energies  of  society  as  an 
organism. 

Thus  the  individual  is  a  being  with  two  natures.  First, 
an  individual,  who  is  acted  upon  by  the  energies  of  nature, 
producing  in  him  the  senses,  the  intellect  and  the  emotions 
with  the  function  of  controlling  nature  through  the  senses 
and  the  intellect ;  secondly,  the  individual  is  a  being  acted 
upon  by  psychical  and  sociological  energies,  human  feelings, 
emotions  and  ideas,  which  in  registering  themselves  in  him 
create  the  moral  and  social  senses,  through  which  the  social 
organism  controls  the  expenditure  of  individual  energy  and 
itself  as  an  organism.  As  the  individual  is  guided  in  nature 


THE  SUPREME   LAW  OF  ETHICS  207 

in  the  expenditure  of  his  energies  by  his  physical  senses  and 
intellect,  so  is  he  guided  in  society  in  the  expenditure  of  his 
psychical  and  sociological  energies  through  his  moral  and 
social  senses.  And,  as  the  individual  controls  the  wasting 
energies  of  nature,  directing  them  to  individual  advantage,  so 
society  controls  the  wasting  energies  of  the  individual,  direct- 
ing them  to  social  advantage — really  the  greatest  individual 
advantage.  And  thus  all  the  energies  of  nature  subserve  one 
purpose,  the  welfare  of  the  human  race  determined  by  itself 
as  a  corporate  organism  guided  by  the  moral  and  social 
senses. 

IV 

The  individual  takes  advantage  of  nature  by  inventing 
machines  that  control,  direct  and  use  the  energies  of  nature. 
The  race  controls  the  individual  by  inventing  institutions 
sacred  and  secular,  by  the  slow  process  of  instinct,  or  by  the 
conscious  process  of  knowledge,  that  control,  direct  and  use 
the  energies  of  the  individual.  The  law  of  repetition  is  ever 
acting  in  the  inventions  of  the  individual,  the  law  of  internal 
repetition  always  repeating  the  invention  as  it  is,  the  law  of 
external  repetition  is  ever  changing  it,  adapting  it  to  the 
environment.  All  of  our  wonderful  machines  are  due  to  the 
accumulated  improvements,  each  generation  adding  its 
increment.  Starting  with  steam  lifting  the  teapot  lid,  we 
have  the  locomotive  and  the  steamship;  starting  with  amber 
lifting  the  pith-ball,  we  have  the  telephone,  telegraph  and 
the  electric  car.  By  the  law  of  internal  repetition  the 
internal  energies  repeat  the  old  form,  while  external  energies 
in  the  form  of  ideas  are  repeated  and  registered  in  the  old 
form,  which  change  it,  showing  the  improvements  of  each 
age;  and  these  acquired  increments  are  repeated  until  wo 
have  the  final  perfected  invention.  And  in  society  the  law 
of  internal  repetition  is  ever  repeating  the  institution,  the 
law  of  external  repetition  is  ever  varying  the  institution  to 


208        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

adapt  it  to  its  social  environment.     Take,  for  example,  the 
jury  system,  or  the  house  of  representatives,  or  the  church. 

If  written  from  a  naturalistic  point  of  view,  what  a  won- 
derful production  a  history  of  the  church  would  be!  The 
nomadic  Jew,  the  fanatical  Arab,  the  philosophical  Greek, 
the  institution-producing  Koman,  the  liberty-loving  Saxon, 
all  contributed  a  part  by  repeating  in  the  original  nucleus 
the  energies  of  their  respective  environments.  The  Deca- 
logue, the  Golden  Rule,  the  Logos,  ecclesiastical  institutions, 
the  right  of  worshiping  God  according  to  the  dictates  of 
one's  own  conscience,  self-government,  God  and  immortality 
of  the  soul,  free  speech  and  free  press,  all  came  from  diverse 
races  and  were  originated  in  different  ages.  The  church  of 
to-day  is  a  result  of  the  working  of  the  ages  of  the  law  of 
repetition.  Starting  with  the  monotheism  of  the  Jew,  all 
the  rest  of  theology  has  been  repeated  in  it  from  the 
environment  by  the  law  of  external  repetition;  while  the 
law  of  internal  repetition  has  preserved  all  the  good,  until 
to-day,  instead  of  believing  in  the  allegorical  interpretation 
of  nature,  life,  mind  and  society,  we  interpret  the  facts  in 
terms  of  matter  and  energy,  and  show  a  synthesis  of  nature 
compassing  everything  from  a  naturalistic  point  of  view. 

The  law  of  internal  repetition  repeats  the  institution  as  it 
is;  the  law  of  external  repetition  registers  in  it  the  energies 
of  the  environment,  sometimes  by  direct  imitation  of  tribe 
or  nation,  most  often  by  the  teaching  of  some  specialized 
individual.  In  the  future  it  will  be  by  education.  In 
society  internal  repetition  is  custom,  tradition,  law;  external 
repetition  is  the  energies  of  the  environment,  feelings,  emo- 
tions, ideas,  brought  to  bear  upon  the  tribe  or  nation  by 
some  powerful  individual,  an  Aristotle,  a  Francis  Bacon, 
whom  society  imitates,  or  repeats  in  itself,  his  feelings, 
emotions  or  thoughts  which  result  in  change,  development. 
Or  the  imitation  is  from  other  tribes  or  nations,  as  all  the 
world  is  imitating  America  to-day.  That  nation  which 


THE  SUPREME   LAW  OF  ETHICS  209 

changes  by  expending  its  energies  in  the  most  economical 
manner  is  the  one  that  succeeds  in  living  and  perpetuating 
itself  in  the  struggle  for  existence  between  tribe  and  tribe  or 
nation  and  nation.  The  conservative  nation  fails  of  adjust- 
ment to  the  environment  and  becomes  extinct :  Spain,  for 
example,  among  moderns,  and  all  the  nations  of  antiquity, 
among  the  ancients. 

There  are  two  factors  in  all  repetition,  a  body  and  the 
energies  acting  upon  it  and  repeating  and  registering  them- 
selves in  it.  These  energies  can  bo  the  physical  energies  of 
nature  or  the  psychical  and  sociological  energies  of  society, 
and  the  bodies  may  be  the  physical  bodies  of  individuals  or 
the  psychical  and  sociological  bodies  of  tribes,  nations  or  the 
whole  race,  and  the  resulting  phenomena  are  the  same  in 
kind,  but  different  in  degree  of  development.  The  energies 
of  the  body  repeat  the  body,  except  the  variations  left  in  it, 
by  the  repetitions  registered  in  it  by  the  external  energies. 
If  the  body  be  a  tribe,  then  it  repeats  itself  from  age  to  age 
except  for  the  energies  it  comes  in  contact  with  in  the  shape 
of  original  ideas  of  individuals,  who  teach  their  ideas  to  the 
tribe,  usually  through  that  form  of  the  law  of  repetition 
called  imitation.  Or  tribes  may  become  developed  by  com- 
ing in  contact  with  other  nations  more  advanced  than  they 
are,  as  we  see  to-day  in  civilization  from  the  extreme  savage 
to  the  semi-civilized  of  the  orient,  with  the  civilized  of  the 
Occident,  and  in  that  case,  as  in  the  example  of  Japan,  we 
see  a  nation  imitating  another  civilization  and  changing  in 
the  space  of  a  half  century  more  than  some  nations  change 
naturally  in  twenty  centuries.  This  shows  us  what  western 
civilization  will  do  when  it  adopts  the  naturalistic  concept 
of  things.  The  whole  race  often  has  been  modified  by  some 
one  individual  in  it  through  imitation — a  Socrates,  a  Plato, 
a  Luther.  Think  of  the  changes  that  have  modified  the  tra- 
ditional concept  of  the  state  by  the  repetition  in  it  of  the 
ideas  of  the  French  philosophers  of  the  eighteenth  century! 


210        THE  SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

The  science  of  the  nineteenth  century  has  undergone  almost 
a  complete  metamorphosis  by  having  had  repeated  in  it  the 
ideas  of  Charles  Darwin.  August  Comte  has  more  ideas 
current  in  the  western  race  to-day  than  any  other  man  of  his 
century,  Charles  Darwin  not  excepted,  hut  he  doesn't  get 
credit  for  it.  What  will  the  state  of  the  future  be  when  it 
has  had  fully  repeated  in  it  the  sociality  of  the  science  of 
to-day?  "What  Avill  the  church  be  when  it  has  had  repeated 
in  it  the  facts  of  science?  Is  not  the  school  to-day  a  meta- 
morphosed form  of  the  church?  Whatever  each  may  become, 
the  old  state,  the  old  church  will  each  preserve  all  its  good, 
but  will  be  modified  and  be  more  perfectly  adjusted  to  its 
environment.  Nothing  that  is  good,  that  is  true,  that  is 
beautiful,  that  is  organic,  is  ever  lost.  And  no  matter  the 
advertisement  or  the  amount  of  force  that  is  used,  no  matter 
its  tremendous  success,  all  fiction  is  destined  inevitably  to 
disappear. 


The  conflict  of  the  individual  with  society  is  of  two 
kinds.  On  the  one  hand,  it  is  carried  on  by  specialized  indi- 
viduals whose  function  is  to  develop  and  perfect  society  by 
developing  the  moral  and  social  senses;  on  the  other,  the 
conflict  is  between  society  and  the  rank  individualist  who 
will  not  be  subdued  by  society,  who  persists  in  expending 
his  energies  by  his  intellect  in  as  wasteful  a  manner  as  he 
sees  fit  so  it  benefits  himself.  Civilization  is  full  of  such 
people  to-day.  They  are  powerful  individuals,  they  head 
corporations,  they  compose  the  professions,  they  constitute 
the  classes.  They  believe  in  society  for  their  own  benefit  and 
hoot  at  the  socialization  of  the  race  as  the  rankest  nonsense. 
They  do  much  good  blindly,  wastefully.  Their  worst  rep- 
resentative is  the  degenerate  and  criminal,  individuals  who 
cannot  adapt  themselves  at  all  to  the  development  of  society 
to-day.  Each  class  is  condemned  alike  by  the  supreme  law 


THE  SUPREME   LAW  OF  ETHICS  211 

of  ethics,  and,  strange  as  it  may  be,  yet  each  class  was  repre- 
sented at  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus — Jesus  the  specialized  indi- 
vidual, the  thieves  on  either  side  the  degenerate  individual- 
ists. 

The  moral  sense  like  everything  else  in  society  is  initiated 
by  the  individual,  is  taken  up  by  the  few,  spreads  to  the 
many,  and  is  finally  the  heritage  of  all.  The  moral  and 
social  senses  are  developed  in  society  by  specialized  indi- 
viduals more  enlightened  than  existing  society,  who  force 
society  to  their  standard,  often  by  dying  a  martyr's  death,  as 
did  Socrates,  Jesus,  Bruno,  or  by  suffering  ignominies  as  did 
Copernicus,  Galileo,  Darwin  and  Comte. 

A  highly  moral  individual  will  no  more  obey  a  barbarous 
society  than  a  highly  civilized  society  will  tolerate  a  bar- 
barous individual.  The  specialized  individual  will  be  either 
a  reformer  or  a  martyr.  The  trouble  with  society  to-day  is 
that  it  is  ages  behind  its  most  advanced  individuals  in  its 
system  of  morality  and  sociality,  in  its  moral  and  social 
senses ;  hence  the  conflict  of  highly  religious  individuals  in 
trying  to  reform  and  perfect  society,  so  that  highly  intellec- 
tual individuals,  the  individualists  cannot  use  and  abuse  it. 
Whenever  society  can  convince  the  individual  that  it  can 
control  him  perfectly,  then  individual  and  social  cooperation 
will  be  secured.  Just  as  the  martyr  dies  for  his  convictions 
because  he  feels  it  to  be  his  duty,  so  will  the  common  citizen 
die  or  do  his  duty  when  a  naturalistic  moral  and  social  sense 
is  attained  by  society ;  for  then  the  moral  and  social  senses 
will  be  part  of  the  individual,  and  to  perfect  society  through 
them  will  always  result  in  religious  ecstasy. 

The  social  sense  may  become  so  highly  developed  in 
oriented  individuals  that  rather  than  disboey  it  they  will 
suffer  death.  There  is  no  fact  upon  which  the  permanency 
of  the  race  depends  more  than  upon  the  loyalty  of  great 
souls  to  the  truth;  hence  in  specializedind  ividuals  the  love 
of  truth  is  so  strong  that  rather  than  betray  it  they  suffer 


212       THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

martyrdom.  This  love  and  loyal ity  to  race-producing,  race- 
maintaining,  and  race-perfecting  virtues  has  many  forms. 
The  love  of  fame,  both  present  and  posthumous,  is  an  emo- 
tion in  great  individuals  so  strong  that  it  often  causes  sacri- 
fices which  end  in  death,  and  always  tramples  on  individual 
feelings  and  emotions.  All  the  virtues  are  more  or  less 
injurious  to  the  individual  functions  of  the  animal  organism, 
and  some  of  them,  if  carried  to  the  extreme,  would  mean 
extinction  of  race,  as  all  vices  and  tragedies  are  injurious  to 
the  functions  of  the  social  organism,  and  if  carried  to  an 
extreme  would  end  in  degeneration,  decay  and  destruction 
of  society.  If  the  virtues  are  carried  to  the  extreme,  they 
destroy  the  individual;  for  example,  chastity  would  stop 
procreation,  charity  would  stop  the  production  of  wealth, 
and  loving-kindness  would  destroy  all  discipline;  if  the  vices 
and  tragedies  are  carried  to  the  extreme,  they  destroy  the 
race;  for  example,  theft  would  destroy  the  production  of 
property,  falsehood  would  destroy  all  the  confidence  of  man 
in  man,  and  the  struggle  for  existence  would  reduce  the 
individual  to  so  low  a  plane  that  civilization  above  its 
lowest  forms  as  life  to-day  would  be  an  impossibility.  But 
the  race  is  so  intent  upon  improving  itself  thnt  the  ill  effects 
of  the  virtues  upon  the  individual  as  an  individual  are  never 
mentioned,  and  this  ought  to  show  us  all  that  the  tendency  of 
things  is  always  to  race,  and  not  individual,  development. 
Or  that  individual  development  can  best  be  secured  through 
race  development 

The  teaching  of  advanced  specialized,  oriented  individuals 
in  regard  to  the  functions  of  the  individual  and  the  func- 
tions of  society  are  always  resented  by  the  existing  social 
organization  as  treason  and  sacrilege.  Such  individuals  are 
always  suppressed.  They  live  and  die  for  the  race.  They 
are  the  founders  of  religions,  systems  of  philosophy  and  the 
fathers"  of  nations.  They  are  the  discoverers  and  inventors 
of  the  race.  The  horrible  facts  of  life  create  in  the  special- 


THE  SUPKEME   LAW  OF  ETHICS  213 

ized  individual  the  moral  and  social  senses,  which  should 
exits  in  humanity  as  a  whole,  whereby  humanity  may  rid 
itself  of  the  evils  that  create  the  moral  and  social  senses. 
But  society  is  so  conservative  that  it  always  resents  all  inno- 
vations ;   they  must  be  tested,  they  must  be  tried,  else  the 
variation  in  the  tribe  may  be  too  great  and  it  deviate  so  far 
from  the  tribal  form  as  to  become  extinct  instead  of  better 
adapted  to  the  environment,  hence  the  test  of  truth  by  per- 
secution and  death ;   and  what  is  found  to  stand  the  test  is 
repeated  in  the  race  by  imitation.     Social  evils  create  their 
own  remedies.     It  is   in  this  roundabout,  indirect,  blind, 
instinctive  way  that  society  corrects  a  wrong  in  itself.     It  is 
certainly  a  wonderful  process.     The  evils  of  society  create 
the  moral  and  social  senses  in  some  specialized  individual. 
Society  martyrs  him  for  trying  to  remedy  its  evils,  and  is 
convinced  by  his  death  that  what  he  died  for  is  the  truth, 
and  society  adopts  it  and  thereby  reaches  social  perfection. 
All  great  doctrines  have  been  promulgated  in  this  way  and 
are  still  so  promulgated  to-day.     It  is  one  of  the  anomalies 
and  paradoxes  of  nature  that  these  individuals  specialized  by 
the  social  organism  for  moral  and  social  work  are  deemed  by 
the  community  in  which  they  live,  by  the  class  rulers  of 
mankind,  to  be  the  least  religious,  the  least  moral,  the  least 
social  and  the  least  intelligent.     Even  to-day  they  are  called 
cranks,  criminals,   infidels   and  anarchists.      Socrates   was 
forced  to  drink  hemlock  for  corrupting  youth;   Jesus  was 
crucified  for  sacrilege;    Bruno  was  burned  at  the  stake  for 
heresy.     It  is  horrible  to  contemplate.     Can  there  be  any 
argument  produced  by  the  mind  of  man  to  show  more  fully 
than  this  that  there  is  no  intelligence  back  of  society,  no 
morality  back  of  it,  but  that  the  energies  and  elements  of 
nature,  working  thus  blindly,  produce  all  the  great  civiliza- 
tion we  see  and  hope  for?     This  is  the  way  improvements  in 
society  spread  throughout  society.    The  fads  that  should  cre- 
ate an  acute  moral  and  social  sense  in  all,  create  an  acute  moral 


214        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF   HUMANITY 

and  social  sense  in  these  specialized  individuals,  and  society  by 
martyring  them  proves  the  trueness  of  their  moral  and  social 
senses,  then  imitates  them;  thus  the  acute  moral  and  social 
sense  of  the  specialized  individual  becomes  humanity  wide. 
This  is  the  natural  way  of  creating  the  moral  and  social 
senses.  It  is  blind,  it  is  crude,  but  in  the  end  it  has  suc- 
ceeded. The  law  of  external  repetition  repeated  the  horrible 
condition  of  the  environment  in  the  mind  of  the  specialized 
individual,  thereby  creating  in  him  an  acute  moral  and 
social  sense.  Society,  through  its  long  experience  with  the 
law  of  internal  repetition,  repeats  in  itself  only  variations 
selected  by  the  crucial  experiment  of  death,  having  instinc- 
tively found  that  anything  worth  dying  for  is  worth  living  for. 
So  it  kills  the  specialized  individual,  and  his  death  proving 
the  adaptability  of  his  doctrine,  society  accepts  it  by  the  law 
of  external  repetition  in  the  form  of  imitation.  This  instinct- 
ive process  is  wonderful,  but  it  will  be  supplanted  by  the 
conscious  process  of  education  and  discipline  when  society 
begins  to  live  consciously,  as  it  is  to-day. 

To-day,  of  all  influences  at  work  for  religion,  for  morality, 
for  society,  those  which  orthodox  theology  fears  most  are 
the  teachings  of  science.  The  orthodox  church,  to  its  shame, 
does  not  fear  oppression,  nor  political  corruption,  nor  moral 
degeneration,  nor  class  strife,  nor  sheer  individualism.  But 
it  does  fear  science.  To  be  an  outspoken  scientist  means  to 
have  no  part  in  the  affairs  of  men.  It  means  to  give  up  one's 
place  in  state  institutions  of  learning,  or  institutions  endowed 
by  the  capitalistic  class.*  To-day  true  scientists  are  special- 
ized individuals  in  the  social  organism.  If  the  history  of  the 
development  of  the  moral  and  social  senses  could  be  given, 
it  would  be  seen  to  consist  of  the  epic  struggles  of  specialized 
individuals  in  adapting  the  social  organism  to  their  concept 
of  right  and  wrong,  truth  and  error,  through  hate,  persecu- 

*  A  History  of  the  Warfare  of  Science  with  Theology,  by  Dr.  Andrew  D.  White. 
Vol.  I,  pp.  168-313-315. 


THE  SUPREME   LAW  OF  ETHICS  215 

tion,  death;  then  reverence,  imitation,  then  regeneration. 
This  is  a  kind  of  sacrifice,  and  were  the  individual  only 
an  individual  and  not  a  social,  a  racial  being,  with  a  highly 
developed  social  nature,  who  takes  great  joy  in  such  a  life 
and  in  such  a  death,  then  his  death  would  he  a  great  injus- 
tice ;  but  as  it  is,  it  is  the  only  way  the  elements  and  energies 
of  nature  can  create  society,  and  consequently  it  has  been 
adopted.  In  the  future  it  will  be  different. 

VI 

Throughout  history  the  moral  sense  has  antagonized  the 
development  of  the  social  sense,  because  the  method  of 
securing  the  right  action  through  the  moral  sense  is  to  have 
that  one  performed  which  is  the  line  of  expending  energy 
according  to  present  feeling,  conscience  and  duty,  whereas 
the  method  of  the  social  sense  is  to  have  as  many  lines 
of  action  registered  as  possible  so  that  human  energy  may 
take  that  line  in  its  expenditure,  not  only  of  present  expe- 
rience, but  the  experience  of  all  the  past  as  registered  in 
language  and  institutions.  The  conflict  between  the  moral 
sense  and  the  social  sense  is  but  the  interminable  conflict 
between  the  factors  of  order  and  the  factors  of  progress.  It 
is  the  fierce  courtship  of  the  internal  energies  of  the  social 
organism  with  the  external  energies  in  the  environment,  the 
marriage  of  which  ends  in  the  evolution  of  humanity,  the 
equilibrium  of  the  social  organism.  It  is  the  highest  exam- 
ple of  the  division  of  labor  seen  in  all  nature,  the  static  moral 
sense  preserving,  the  dynamic  social  sense  developing,  the 
social  organism. 

One  of  the  most  irretrievable  examples  of  the  struggle  for 
existence  in  all  history,  one  of  the  most  shocking,  is  the 
struggle  for  existence  between  different  forms  of  the  social 
sense.  Primitive  man  fought  more  bitterly  over  ideas  than 
anything  else.  The  world  has  been  deluged  in  blood  more 
than  once  in  trying  to  determine  which  of  two  social  senses 


216       THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

shall  be  supreme,  and  when  in  history  we  see  such  bloody 
wars  over  beliefs  so  nearly  alike  that  they  are  almost  indis- 
tinguishable, the  wonder  is  great  until  its  sociological  signifi- 
cance is  established  by  showing  that  in  this  crucial  manner 
the  primitive  race  selected  and  evolved  its  social  sense. 
The  conflict  between  the  cross  and  the  crescent  is  a  con- 
flict in  social  sense.  The  bitter  struggle  between  Catholicism 
and  Protestantism  is  another.  The  silent  but  none  the  less 
severe  conflict  between  science  and  theology  to-day  is  the 
last  example  of  the  struggle  for  existence  of  social  sense  with 
social  sense  in  the  long  history  of  the  race,  and  it  will  inev- 
kably  end  in  the  extermination  of  theology. 

The  human  race  must  be  its  own  savior.  It  must  work 
out  its  own  salvation  courageously,  humanely,  by  the  con- 
scious expenditure  of  its  energies.  Civilization  has  grown  as 
high  as  it  possibly  can  grow  by  the  blind  battling  of  natural 
energies;  either  cooperation,  coordination  and  socialization 
must  follow,  or  deterioration,  decay  and  death  will  result. 
Human  energy  must  be  consciously  directed  by  the  social 
sense  before  the  democratization  and  socialization  of  the  race 
can  be  realized. 

When  the  social  sense  has  reached  a  high  stage  of  develop- 
ment, then  the  moral  sense  opposes  any  change  in  it.  This 
is  the  conflict  between  the  moral  and  social  senses  as  is 
exampled  in  the  conflict  between  order  and  progress  seen 
throughout  history.  The  moral  sense  aims  at  proximate 
ends;  the  social  sense  at  ultimate  ends.  The  moral  sense  is 
similar  to  reflex  action  or  instinct;  the  social  sense  to  reason 
or  intellect.  The  conflict  between  the  moral  and  social 
senses  is  another  example  of  the  division  of  labor  in  the 
expenditure  of  energy  in  nature  that  resulted  in  the  origina- 
tion of  sex  and  the  creation  of  plants  and  animals.  Gener- 
ally speaking  one-half  of  the  energies  of  nature  tend  to 
order,  the  other  half  to  change,  progress.  The  manifesta- 
tion of  energy  seen  predominating  in  plants,  in  the  female 


THE  SUPREME   LAW  OF  ETHICS  217 

sex  and  in  order  in  society  is  gravitant,  internal  energy; 
while  the  predominant  energy  manifested  in  the  active  virile 
animal,  the  energetic,  adventurous,  liberty -loving  male  sex, 
and  in  change,  innovation,  evolution,  progress  in  society,  is 
radiant  external  energy.  As  a  union  of  these  two  mani- 
festations of  energy  always  produced  the  best  results  in  the 
lower  organisms,  the  same  is  true  of  their  manifestations  in 
society.  In  perfect  human  society  order  and  progress  will 
be  perfectly  adjusted  and  thereby  perfect  adaptation  of 
society  to  the  environment  will  be  secured.  In  originating 
the  moral  and  social  senses  nature  only  extended  its  division 
of  labor  seen  in  the  static  plant  and  the  dynamic  animal,  the 
static  female  sex  and  the  dynamic  male  sex,  to  society,  in 
which  we  see  it  manifested  in  the  order-producing  moral 
sense  and  the  progress-producing  social  sense. 

Again,  the  conflict  between  the  moral  and  social  senses  is 
paralleled  in  the  conflict  in  a  low  form  of  animal  when  its 
sense  of  touch  conflicts  with  its  sense  of  sight,  the  animal 
not  sanctioning  actions  from  sight,  owing  to  the  uncertainty 
from  imperfection  of  vision.  Or  the  conflict  is  paralleled  in 
the  individual  who  acts  from  instinct  instead  of  reason. 
The  social  sense  is  a  differentiation  of  and  is  supplemental 
to  the  moral  sense,  as  sight  is  a  differentiation  of  and  is  sup- 
plemental to  the  sense  of  touch  in  animals. 

Actions  guided  by  the  moral  sense  alone  result  in  benefits 
to  society  only  on  an  average,  and,  if  not  corrected  and 
guided  by  the  social  sense,  often  work  injury.  The  moral 
sense  alone  never  produced  a  high  civilization;  it  is  to  tho 
social  sense  that  humanity  owes  its  present  high  civilization. 
The  conscience  of  a  savage  holds  him  as  in  a  vise.  He  obeys 
the  moral  sense  of  his  tribe  implicitly,  but  the  moral  sense 
being  blind  and  the  social  sense  of  the  tribe  being  unde- 
veloped, the  life  of  the  savage,  despite  his  high  moral  sense, 
is  very  low.  The  moral  sense  holds  the  tribe  together,  but 
does  not  permit  of  development  except  by  the  law  of  natural 


218        THE  SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

selection.  The  moral  sense  is  static;  to  it  society  owes 
order,  permanency  of  form.  The  social  sense  is  dynamic; 
to  it  society  owes  progress. 

No  greater  calamity  has  ever  befallen  a  people  than  the 
administration  of  the  affairs  of  men  by  the  moral  sense  alone 
or  a  low  form  of  social  sense,  as  witness  the  history  of  the 
western  world  from  the  fifth  to  the  fourteenth  century.  No 
progress,  no  discovery,  no  invention,  no  development;  but 
on  the  other  hand  the  origination  of  the  most  powerful 
organization  yet  known  to  man,  the  Eoman  Catholic  church. 
What  more  horrible  catastrophe  can  one  contemplate  than 
the  Inquisition?  But  persecution  whenever  humanity  is  gov- 
erned by  the  moral  sense  and  a  low  form  of  the  social  sense 
is  not  only  true  of  one  people  or  in  one  age,  but  any  and  all 
peoples  in  any  and  all  ages.  Persecution  is  the  way  primi- 
tive man  creates  the  moral  and  social  senses,  the  way  he  tests 
the  truth. 

In  the  differentiation  which  took  place  in  man's  social 
nature  in  regard  to  the  world  of  fact  and  the  world  of  fic- 
tion, the  moral  sense  grew  to  be  chiefly  stimulated  by  the 
imaginary  world;  for  the  moral  sense  being  blind  is  com- 
patible with  the  grossest  superstition  for  a  social  sense,  as 
witness  Mohammedanism  and  Mormonism.  Among  savages 
and  semi-civilized,  no  superstition  is  too  gross  not  to  be 
upheld  by  the  fanaticism  of  the  moral  sense,  resulting  in  poly- 
gamy, slavery,  war,  cannibalism,  and  all  of  the  lowest  forms 
of  life.  Its  entire  end  and  aim  is  order,  obedience,  statical 
life.  Whereas  the  social  sense,  being  concerned  with  the  facts 
of  the  actual  experience  of  the  race,  government,  the  indus- 
trial, artistic,  and  scientific  worlds,  aims  at  progress,  ameliora- 
tion, improvement,  adjustment  to  the  environment,  dynamic 
life.  The  moral  sense  considers  its  world  as  sacred,  station- 
ary, not  to  be  changed;  it  is  a  finality;  the  world  of  the 
social  sense  is  secular,  capable  of  improvement,  subjective  to 
change,  progressive.  To  the  social  sense  the  race  owes  the 


THE  SUPREME   LAW  OF  ETHICS  219 

origination  of  all  that  is  good,  true,  useful  and  beautiful; 
but  it  owes  their  preservation  to  the  moral  sense.  When 
energy  shall  be  expended  through  the  moral  and  social 
senses  perfectly  then  there  will  be  a  perfectly  adjusted 
division  of  labor  in  society  between  the  factors  of  progress 
and  the  factor  of  order  and  the  equilibrium  of  society  will 
be  that  of  the  greatest  organization  possible  to  the  elements 
and  energies  in  all  nature. 

VII 

The  moral  sense  even  to-day  is  often  misdeveloped, 
perverted  by  superstition,  ignorance,  and  prejudice.  It  is 
often  clannish,  narrow,  partisan.  But  on  the  other  hand 
it  is  the  purest,  the  noblest,  the  most  sublime  and  the  most 
powerful  faculty  possessed  by  a  human  being.  It  gave 
birth  to  the  Golden  Eule,  the  doctrine  of  the  Brotherhood  of 
Man  and  a  God  of  love.  But  the  moral  sense,  being  a 
matter  of  present  feeling  and  emotion,  is  blind  in  its 
operation.  It  makes  no  difference  what  form  of  society  it 
is  in,  it  upholds  it.  It  is  the  established  moral  sense  that 
condemns  the  moral  reformer.  It  is  the  engine  of  all 
martyrdoms.  The  men  who  have  created  the  moral  sense 
have  often  fallen  by  it,  the  prophet  and  preachers  in  all  ages 
and  in  all  climes. 

It  is  not  enough  to  want  to  do  what  is  right — the  moral 
sense ;  but  one  must  know  how  to  do  right — the  social  sense. 
The  individual  without  a  moral  sense  neither  cares  to  do 
right  nor  to  know  how  to  do  right.  He  is  devoid  of  a  sense 
of  right  and  wrong  and  knows  nothing  of  social  responsibility 
or  social  knowledge.  He  is  either  a  savage  or  a  degenerate. 
An  individual  with  a  moral  sense,  without  a  social  sense, 
would  do  right,  but  doesn't  know  how.  He  accomplishes 
much  blindly.  But  the  truly  moral  man  is  one  who  wishes 
to  do  right  and  knows  how;  one  whose  moral  sense  is  supple- 
mented by  a  social  sense.  Most  of  our  morality  to-day  is 


220       THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

devoid  of  social  sense  or  controlled  by  the  social  sense  of 
oar  savage  ancestors,  the  highest  form  of  which  is  a  belief 
in  a  supernatural  God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul — dog- 
mas on  which  a  present  civilization  cannot  be  constructed, 
for  the  motor  power  of  civilization  is  not  from  God,  but 
humanity,  and  not  the  hope  of  an  immortal  life,  but  human 
happiness  here  on  earth.  A  naturalistic  social  sense  must 
supplement  a  naturalistic  moral  sense. 

The  social  sense  figures  up  the  resistance  in  every  line  of 
expanding  energy  and  adopts  the  resultant  of  the  condition- 
ing energies,  determined  before  the  action;  it  is  the  line 
of  the  greatest  economy  considering  all  possible  lines  in 
time  and  space.  The  social  sense  looks  into  the  future.  It 
furnishes  supplies  before  there  are  demands.  It  antici- 
pates want  with  plenty.  Life  according  to  the  social 
sense  is  appointed.  It  is  determined.  It  is  the  unfolding 
of  a  plan.  It  is  conscious  evolution,  conscious  society.  And 
this  ultimately  for  the  whole  human  race  beginning  with 
western  civilization  and  ending  with  the  orient.  Just  as 
the  individual  through  his  reason  plans  for  his  entire  life  in 
time  and  space,  so  society  under  the  social  sense  can  plan 
for  its  entire  life  in  time  and  space.  Bat  just  as  amongst 
individuals  to-day,  almost  all  of  them  are  led  by  instinct 
alone,  not  employing  reason  to  any  great  extent,  so  society 
to-day  lives  largely  by  instinct  too  (the  moral  sense)  not 
employing  knowledge  (the  social  sense)  to  any  great  extent. 

In  highly  developed  society,  owing  to  the  facts  of  the 
shortness  of  human  life,  that  the  moral  and  intellectual 
development  of  the  individual  is  but  slightly  hereditary, 
society  must  spend  most  of  its  time,  through  education  and 
discipline,  in  bringing  the  individual  up  to  its  high  standard 
of  requirenaents.  Hence  one  of  the  chief  functions  of  the 
social  organism  is  to  educate  and  train  the  individual  by 
implanting  in  him  scientific  moral  and  social  senses.  The 
functions  of  originating  and  developing  the  moral  and  social 


THE  SUPREME   LAW  OF  ETHICS  221 

senses  left  to-day  to  specialized  individuals,  geniuses  and 
martyrs  will  be  consciously  performed  by  society  in  the 
future  in  a  scientific  system  of  education  beginning  with  the 
cradle  and  ending  at  the  grave. 

If  man  were  only  an  animal  there  is  no  reason  why  he 
should  live  beyond  forty.  All  of  his  individual  functions 
can  be  well  performed  in  ftiat  time.  Man's  great  length  of 
life  is  due  to  his  social  functions,  to  the  demands  of  the 
race ;  and,  as  racial  requirements  increase,  and  man  becomes 
more  and  more  social,  the  length  of  his  life  will  increase. 
In  all  strictly  social  and  religious  organizations — the  Oneida 
Community,  the  Quakers,  and  the  Mormons— statistics 
show  that  the  general  length  of  life  is  increased.  The 
length  of  civilized  life  is  much  greater  than  that  of  the 
savage,  and  that  of  the  savage  is  greater  than  that  of  the 
gorilla  or  the  chimpanzee.  In  the  future,  when  the  race 
shall  have  been  socialized  and  democratized,  the  probabilities 
are  that  the  length  of  man's  life  will  be  double'd.  The 
nineteenth  century  raised  the  general  average  many  years ; 
the  twentieth  will  raise  it  many  more.  The  future  of  the 
human  race  is  a  cheering  prospect  to  look  upon. 

VIII 

The  social  organization  of  western  civilization,  -while  of  a 
low  grade  to-day,  is  vastly  different  from  that  of  an  animal 
of  a  low  grade  of  organization  in  regard  to  its  capability  of 
improvement  and  evolution ;  for  while  our  social  organization 
is  very  imperfect,  it  is  the  perfection  of  its  individual  units 
upon  which  depends  social  progress,  and  not  upon  the 
organization  as  a  whole.  The  social  organization  differs 
from  the  animal  organization  of  a  low  development  in  this, 
that  in  the  case  of  the  animal  the  units  and  the  whole 
organism  are  alike  in  grade  of  development ;  whereas  in  the 
social  organization,  the  units  may  be  of  a  very  high  grade 
of  development,  while  the  social  organization  may  be  of  a 


222       THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 


low  grade.  This  is  the  actual  condition  of  western 
civilization  to-day.  The  hope  of  social  progress  depends 
upon  the  high  development  of  its  isolated  units,  the  rare 
individuals,  and  not  upon  the  social  organization.  For 
the  high  development  of  the  units  will  inevitably  end  in  a 
high  development  of  the  social  organization  through  society 
imitating  tue  individuals  according  to  the  law  of  external 
repetition.  The  western  nations  to-day  are  suffering  from 
the  evil  effects  of  a  transition  from  a  supernatural  conception 
of  things,  upholding  materialism  and  capitalism,  to  that  of 
a  naturalistic  conception,  which  will  uphold  cooperation  and 
morality  —  that  is,  the  conception  that  society  is  all,  by  all,  for 
all  —  that  there  is  but  one  class,  the  race  as  a  whole;  and 
whenever  the  transition  from  the  two  conceptions  and  the 
two  systems  of  industry  consequent  upon  the  conceptions  is 
effected,  the  social  organization  will  receive  a  development 
commensurate  with  the  high  development  of  the  individual, 
and  will  accomplish  wonders  not  dreamed  of  or  imagined 
before  by  the  mind  of  man.  The  social  sense  will  consciously 
determine  the  future  of  •  society,  and  direct  all  human 
energy  into  channels  of  the  greatest  economy  possible  in 
the  nature  of  things,  and  the  socialization  of  the  race  will 
be  realized. 

Out  of  the  social  sense  grows  government,  industry, 
commerce,  fine  art,  manufacture,  science,  civilization.  It 
is  the  social  sense  which  determines  whether  a  given  society 
shall  be  based  on  slavery,  feudalism,  capitalism  or  cooper- 
ation. It  does  not  change  human  nature,  but  only 
enlightens  it.  It  is  the  social  sense  that  will  give  a 
philosophy  of  civilization,  its  reason  and  causes  for  being, 
the  principles  on  which  it  is  based,  the  laws  of  its  develop- 
ment and  its  functions,  structure  and  destiny. 

Owing  to  our  imperfect  social  sense,  we  see  many 
perversions  in  society  to-day.  The  moral  sense  is  often 
used  as  a  means  to  hold  society  in  its  present  iniquitous 


THE  SUPREME   LAW  OF  ETHICS  223 

position;  at  best,  the  social  sense  applying  to  it  no 
fundamental  remedy  for  its  development  into  a  higher  form 
of  society,  but  using  private  and  public  charity  to  make 
tolerable,  for  example,  the  capitalistic  system  of  industry, 
and  the  materialistic  civilization  about  us.  Instead  of  being 
the  foundation  of  a  scientific  social  sense,  the  moral  sense, 
as  taught  by  the  church,  is  the  most  reactionary  obstacle  wo 
meet  with  in  attempting  to  apply  scientific  knowledge  to  the 
amelioration  of  the  ills  of  civilization,  and  the  incomplete 
psychical  life  of  the  individual.  The  church  to-day,  as  the 
Jewish  church  in  the  days  of  Jesus,  neither  does  its  duty 
nor  permits  specialized  individuals,  geniuses,  reformers  and 
scientists  to  do  theirs.  The  church  is  a  capitalistic  ally, 
which,  in  the  name  of  God  says:  "Hands  off,  nothing  is 
sacred  but  property!"  It  is  grossly  materialistic.  It 
preaches  that  property  is  put  into  the  hands  of  the  few  by 
God  to  be  managed  for  the  many.  Wealth  rules  the 
church.  As  a  result,  the  church  is  upheld  chiefly  by  the 
classes  in  power,  it  is  used  as  an  anesthetic  to  deaden  the 
pain  of  the  injustice  done  humanity  in  its  struggle  for 
social  democracy  and  socialization. 

The  social  sense  now  in  vogue  in  controlling  individuals 
and  corporations  through  ignorance  and  error,  fails  by 
permitting  them  to  act  through  individual  selfishness. 
Individual  corporations  use  society  the  same  as  they  use 
individuals  and  nature.  Society  has  but  few  recognized 
positive  functions;  its  chief  function  being  that  of  a 
policeman.  The  intricate  processes  of  production,  distribu- 
tion and  consumption  are  governed  by  blind  individual 
feelings  and  emotions,  the  law  of  supply  and  demand. 
Society  sits  idly  by  and  knows  little  or  nothing  of  these 
complicated  processes.  The  injustice  and  tragedies,  result- 
ing from  the  conflicts  of  individuals  and  corporations  in 
these  three  cardinal  operations  of  society,  are  overlooked 
and  unknown  or  put  down  as  beyond  the  function  of  the 


224       THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

race  to  control.  The  expenditure  of  individual  feelings,  if 
uncontrolled  by  the  moral  sense,  end  in  vice,  sin,  crime; 
the  expenditure  of  individual  energy  according  to  individual 
ideas  in  nations,  corporations  or  individuals,  if  uncontrolled 
by  the  social  sense,  end  in  panics,  poverty,  the  struggle  for 
existence,  and  war,  the  great  tragedies  of  civilization.  Yet 
the  social  sense  of  to-day  does  not  acknowledge  the  control 
of  these  operations  as  its  function  at  all.  All  the  energies 
of  the  animal  organism  are  directed  by  its  senses  and  its 
intellect,  its  mentality,  to  the  betterment  of  the  organism 
as  a  whole ;  so  should  all  the  energies  of  the  social  organism 
be  directed  by  the  moral  and  social  senses  to  the  betterment 
of  the  social  organism  as  a  whole.  But  individuals  combined 
in  private  corporations,  professions,  and  classes  set  up 
independent  operations,  which  use  the  machinery  of  society, 
the  state,  the  church  and  even  the  school,  for  private  gain. 
Such  organizations  are  independent  forms  of  life  within  the 
social  organism,  antagonistic  to  its  welfare,  as  a  tumor  or  a 
cancer  in  the  animal  organism.  Every  law,  every  institu- 
tion, every  business  method,  every  method  of  living,  should 
be  designed  by  society  as.  a  whole  for  the  good  of  society  as 
a  whole.  The  greatest  crime,  sin,  shame,  tragedy,  is  to 
use  society  as  a  whole  for  private  gain.  It  violates  the 
fundamental  law  of  ethics;  yet  it  seldom  meets  with  con- 
demnation and  punishment  to-day,  because  it  is  done  by 
great  individuals,  corporations,  or  the  dominant  class, 
which  creates  the  moral  and  social  senses  before  which  it  is 
tried. 

IX 

Nature  having  no  choice  in  means  takes  what  is  at  hand 
and  does  the  best  possible.  It  has  no  minions  and  abandons 
those  who  have  loved  it  most  on  the  slightest  occasion.  The 
means  of  developing  wealth  in  society  illustrate  this  truth. 
Among  savages  all  are  free  and  poor.  They  are  incapable  of 


THE  SUPREME   LAW  OE  ETHICS  225 

cooperation  in  the  production  of  wealth.  The  only  possible 
way  to  originate  property,  wealth,  social  power,  is  for  one 
individual  to  subjugate  another,  one  tribe  to  subjugate 
another ;  hence  slavery.  With  further  progress  in  industry 
serfdom  is  adopted;  with  still  further  progress  the  wage 
system  and  capitalism.  Wealth  is  the  great  desideratum  of 
social  accomplishment;  without  it,  humanity  is  a  poor 
savage;  with  it,  a  god.  And  no  institution  has  been  too 
iniquitous  not  to  be  adopted,  if  it  produced  wealth ;  yet  the 
natural  and  normal  condition  of  humanity  is  freedom, 
liberty,  and  this  will  be  its  ultimate  condition.  It  is  the 
problem  of  civilization  how  to  permit  men  to  be  free  and 
yet  conserve  the  vast  wealth  the  race  has  accumulated. 
Society  is  not  like  a  miser  who  accumulates  wealth  just  to 
see  it  grow;  it  finds  an  ulterior  purpose  for  it.  The  only 
way  the  race  can  be  socialized,  spiritualized,  organized,  is 
through  wealth.  What  looks  like  final  causes  in  nature  is 
that  things,  resulting  from  one  cause,  become  themselves 
the  causes  of  other  things.  Wealth  was  created  by  the 
individual  for  his  own  benefit;  but  after  it  is  created,  it 
becomes  the  indispensable  means  of  social  perfection.  Every 
cause  in  nature  produces  its  specific  effect,  and  certain  by- 
products. It  is  from  the  by-products  in  nature  and  society 
that  most  of  the  wonderful  developments  have  resulted. 
The  stone  that  the  builders  rejected  becomes  the  chief  stone 
in  some  new  edifice.  Appetite  is  not  the  only  thing  that 
grows  with  what  it  feeds  on.  Every  thing  in  nature  is 
so.  Whatever  produces  a  thing  is  the  cause  of  a  further 
production  of  it,  and  so  on  forever.  Another  anomaly  is 
that  opposites  in  nature  and  society  are  the  causes  of  each 
other's  development.  It  is  the  individualism  of  the 
individual  that  created  wealth,  and  made  society  and  the 
socialization  of  society  possible ;  and  it  will  be  the  sociali- 
zation of  the  race  that  will  perfect  the  individual.  Nature 
goes  as  far  as  possible  in  one  line,  then  takes  the  opposite 


226       THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

and  completes  the  development.  "When  life  and  mind  were 
originated  it  looked  to  be  the  acme  of  economy;  but  the 
same  principles,  that  developed  life  and  mind,  applied  to 
individuals,  developed  society.  It  is  the  nature  of  matter 
and  energy  in  passing  through  the  universal  process  to  pass 
through  these  cycles,  duplications  and  reduplications,  and, 
what  looks  like  purpose,  is  looking  at  the  finished  product 
and  refusing  to  look  at  the  process  of  development,  which 
always  shows  the  circuitous,  indirect  route  of  blind  energy, 
and  not  the  direct  route  of  intelligence,  which  is  purpose. 

The  whole  historic  period  of  humanity  has  only  been  a 
development  of  processes  for  producing  wealth;  and  no 
wonder  the  common  individual  thinks  there  is  no  other 
purpose  in  the  creation  of  wealth  than  simply  to  create  it, 
for  the  few  or  the  one,  as  the  miser,  with  no  ulterior 
purpose  of  using  it;  but  such  is  not  the  case.  It  is  one  of 
the  by-products  of  'individualism  that  can  be  used  for  the 
ultimate  socialization  of  the  race,  and  thereby  the  perfection 
of  the  individual.  Humanity  created  wealth  instinctively ; 
but  it  can  be  used  intelligently.'  The  wealth  of  the  race 
to-day  is  serving  its  social  functions  blindly.  But  the  race 
can  develop  institutions  to  change  its  physical  wealth  into 
spiritual  wealth,  social  wealth.  Heretofore  civilization  has 
been  purely  materialistic.  It  is  so  to-day.  If  the  perfection 
of  the  individual,  through  the  perfection  of  society,  is  to  be 
achieved  the  material  power  of  wealth  must  be  changed  into 
the  psychical  powers  of  beauty,  truth,  righteousness  by 
realizing  in  the  individual  the  perfection  of  his  nature 
through  the  complete  socialization  and  democratization  of 
the  race,  and  this  can  only  be  accomplished  by  scientific 
moral  and  social  senses,  which  will  abolish  the  imaginary 
world  entirely  as  an  hypothesis  that  has  been  exploded. 
Then  perfect  economy  in  the  expenditure  of  energy  here  on 
earth  will  be  reached  in  the  socialization  of  humanity  and 
the  ultimate  synthesis  of  life,  mind,  and  society  in  monism. 


THE  SUPREME   LAW  OP  ETHICS  227 

Then  wealth  will  perform  its  social  function  without  any 
conflict  with  its  individual  function,  and  individualism  and 
socialism  will  at  last  be  reconciled  in  perfect  harmony. 

X 

As  the  mentality  of  the  animal  organism  has  been 
developed  by  the  law  of  natural  selection  and  the  law  of 
repetition,  so  have  the  moral  and  social  senses  in  the  social 
organism.  The  moral  and  social  senses  are  a  result  of  the 
dissipation  of  human  feelings  and  human  ideas  in  society ; 
they  produce  order  and  promote  progress;  they  are  the 
moving  equilibrium  of  the  social  organism,  which  we  call 
civilization:  as  the  mentality  of  the  animal  organism  is  a 
result  of  the  physical  energies  of  nature,  which  cause  the 
moving  equilibrium  we  call  life.  And  as  the  animal 
organism  through  its  senses  and  intellect  has  reached 
approximate  perfection  in  man,  so  the  social  organism 
through  its  moral  and  social  senses  will  reach  perfection  in 
the  socialization  of  humanity.  And  just  as  the  mentality 
of  the  animal  organism  is  an  organic  product,  so  the  morality 
of  the  social  organism  is  an  organic  product.  And  as  the 
brain  is  the  structure  in  which  the  experiences  of  the 
individual  are  stored,  so  language  and  institutions  in  the 
social  organism  are  the  structures  in  which  the  experience 
of  the  race  is  stored.  Just  as  the  mind  of  man  as  instinct 
did  not  profit  much  by  taking  advantage  of  nature  until  it 
grew  strong  enough  to  be  aided  by  education,  conscious 
self -development,  so  the  moral  and  social  senses  of  society 
while  unconscious  have  done  little  towards  perfecting  the 
individual  and  society  because  of  lack  of  conscious  develop- 
ment. But  when  the  cardinal  truth,  that  it  is  impossible  to 
be  truly  good  without  being  wise,  that  there  should  be  an 
educational  qualification  for  salvation,  is  generally  believed, 
knowledge  will  be  distributed  throughout  society  as  soon  as 
discovered,  and  the  development  of  the  social  sense  will  be 


228       THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

one  of  the  chief  functions  of  the  social  organism  and 
civilization  will  be  planned  for  by  society  as  life  is  now 
planned  by  the  individual.  Then  life  will  be  living,  not  a 
promise  of  living,  or  a  preparation  for  living,  or  a  handing 
down  of  life. 

Just  as  a  feeble-minded  or  insane  person  is  incompetent 
to  live  in  nature  and  soon  meets  with  death  from  lack  of 
adaptation  to  the  environment;  and  intelligent,  strong- 
minded  and  sane  individuals  always  live  and  adapt  them- 
selves to  the  environment;  so  is  it  with  tribes,  nations  and 
races:  they  take  their  place  in  humanity  determined  by 
their  knowledge  and  live  and  die  by  it.  History  demon- 
strates nothing  more  fully  than  this  proposition,  and 
humanity  instinctively  accepts  it  as  a  cardinal  truth,  as  is 
shown  by  our  perfect  faith  in  education ;  but  our  inherited 
system  of  salvation,  our  theological  social  sense,  Christianity, 
completely  ignores  it  by  making  salvation  depend  upon 
faith,  instead  of  upon  knowledge,  the  social  sense. 

There  has  never  been  a  complete  analysis  of  nature,  life, 
mind  and  society  followed  by  a  complete  synthesis.  Social 
functions  have  never  been  traced  to  their  natural  basis  and 
explained  from  a  naturalistic  point  of  view  before.  The 
compromise  between  man's  inherited  knoAvledge  from  the 
remote  past  and  what  he  has  originated  since  the  revival  of 
learning  has  so  far  resulted  in  modern  knowledge  being 
made  only  ancillary  to  the  classic  knowledge  of  the  past. 
But  to-day  all  society  must  come  under  scientific  conceptions 
before  society  can  become  a  conscious  organism.  That  the 
state,  the  church,  industry,  fine  art,  medicine,  education, 
science — nature,  life,  mind  and  society  are  purely  naturalistic 
products  has  never  before  been  boldly  stated.  But  in  order 
that  man  may  be  fully  socialized  such  a  philosophy  must 
become  established.  There  is  nothing  gained  by  concealing 
the  truth  any  longer,  or  interpreting  it  in  allegorical  terms. 
As  the  child  develops  its  intellect  in  proportion  to  its  ability 


THE  SUPREME   LAW  OF  ETHICS  229 

to  make  complicated  actions,  so  society  develops  its  social 
sense  and  institutions  simultaneously.  This  development 
will  occur  with  the  forces  now  at  work.  All  energy  seeks 
the  line  of  the  least  resistance  and  when  the  new  way  is 
opened  up  to  social  energy,  it  will  inevitably  follow  it.  It 
is  just  as  impossible  to  find  a  storage  for  social  energy  as  for 
any  physical  energy,  and  when  a  scientific  system  of  produc- 
tion, distribution  and  consumption  of  human  property  is 
once  pointed  out,  it  will  be  followed  in  practice  in  all 
society,  as  when  the  scientific  way  of  accumulating  property 
was  pointed  out,  and  the  great  combinations  of  capital 
known  as  the  trusts  were  organized  here  in  the  United 
States.  Human  energy  will  follow  the  line  of  the  least 
resistance  just  as  inevitably  as  physical  energy,  and  when  a 
scientific  social  sense  points  the  way  the  socialization  of 
the  race  will  inevitably  follow. 

XI 

There  is  a  natural  conflict  between  the  individual  and 
society  until  the  individual  is  brought  into  subjection  to  it. 
Often  complete  subjection  never  occurs.  Most  persons 
to-day  live  in  opposition  to  conscience  and  duty,  and  refuse 
to  think  as  society  thinks,  because  of  the  imperfection  of 
our  theological  social  sense.  They  do  not  believe  in  God 
or  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  Their  relation  to  society  is 
purely  instinctive,  for  they  reject  the  statement  of  the 
relation  of  theology  as  false.  That  society  is  a  natural 
product,  that  they  have  a  naturalistic  relation  to  it  has 
never  dawned  upon  their  minds.  They  do  not  understand 
things  and  are  satisfied  with  their  ignorance.  After 
rejecting  God  and  immortality,  they  look  out  for  them- 
selves, and  think  there  is  no  explanation  of  things  that  will 
bring  everything  into  unity.  Most  persons  refuse  to  think 
about  moral  questions  above  the  merest  surface  thought. 
They  look  upon  conscience  and  duty  as  methods  of  expend- 


230        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

ing  energy,  to  be  defeated  when  they  conflict  too  much  with 
their  individual  expenditure  of  energy.  Fundamentally 
their  conduct  is  goocl,  because  the  individual's  social 
instincts  are  right;  but  whenever  there  is  great  individual 
gain  to  be  made  by  deviating  from  the  right  line,  they  do 
it.  How  much  better  it  would  be  for  the  individual  to 
know  what  life  meant,  know  his  function  in  the  social 
organism,  what  conscience  and  duty  are,  how  they  are 
developed,  and  thus  adjust  himself  to  the  social  organism 
perfectly  by  conscious  adjustment,  instead  of  blind, 
instinctive  adjustment  as  he  does  to-day?  A  scientific 
social  sense  would  tell  the  individual  what  he  is,  what  society 
is,  what  nature  is,  his  function  in  nature,  in  society,  and 
how  to  perform  each.  We  cannot  have  anything  like 
perfect  morality  so  long  as  we  permit  an  unbelievable 
theology  to  take  the  place  of  scientific  knowledge,  for  indi- 
viduals will  not  respect  a  creed  they  do  not  believe,  even  if 
they  do  have  right  social  instincts.  There  is  no  God;  but 
let  the  individualist  not  deceive  himself,  there  is  something 
in  nature  that  corresponds  to  God,  and  that  something  is 
society.  And  while  our  theological  social  sense  is  false  and 
supernaturalism  is  untrue,  yet  there  is  truth  in  naturalism, 
and  there  can  be  as  perfect  an  organization  made  from  the 
facts  of  nature  as  from  the  allegorical  interpretation  of 
them ;  and  this  is  the  social  sense  of  the  future.  It  is  the 
height  of  unmanliness  not  to  meet  our  intellectual  situation 
and  master  it.  It  is  the  privilege  of  every  one  to  know 
Vhat  he  is,  what  society  is,  to  realize  the  fulness  of  his 
^nature,  to  live  in  the  greatest  significance  of  that  word. 
This  is  what  is  open  to  every  one  to-day — to  live  as  men  will 
live  ten  thousand  years  from  now. 

The  conquering  of  the  individual  by  society  in  religious 
terminology  is  called  the  new  birth,  conversion,  and  it  will 
always  occur  even  when  we  have  a  scientific  social  sense. 
In  secular  language  it  is  becoming  a  moral  and  upright  man, 


231 

intelligent,  with  common  sense,  after  having  been  "a 
spoiled  child,"  after  having  made  a  fool  of  one's  self  in 
"sowing  a  crop  of  wild  oats,"  the  brief  and  erratic  career 
of  the  individual  independent  of  the  moral  and  social 
senses,  we  all  live  more  or  less  in  our  childhood  and  youth. 
Man's  double  nature  is  very  imperfectly  understood. 
Man's  individual  nature  is  his  ego  and  is  understood  by  all; 
but  his  social  nature  only  among  civilized  people  is  referred 
to  as  a  part  of  himself;  the  savage  thinks  some  other  being 
has  taken  possession  of  him,  which,  in  a  figurative  sense,  is 
the  case;  for  man's  social  nature  is  the  effect  of  society 
upon  him  organized  into  a  personality,  which  may  be  called 
the  moral  sense,  the  social  mind.  However,  man's  social 
nature  is  as  much  a  part  of  himself  as  his  intellectual 
nature  is,  and  is  as  capable  of  bringing  him  as  much  joy. 
Both  his  intellectual  nature  and  his  social  nature  are 
registrations  from  the  environment,  one  from  nature,  the 
other  from  society,  and  are  for  the  purpose  of  adjusting  him 
to  his  environment,  natural  and  social.  In  unoriented 
persons,  the  influence  of  one's  social  nature  upon  one's 
individual  nature  is  referred  to  as  the  influence  of  God  upon 
the  individual.  Allegorically  this  is  true,  but  instead  of 
some  imaginary  God,  it  is  to  the  real  facts  in  human  life 
that  we  owe  all  of  our  morality,  owe  our  social  nature,  our 
spirituality  and  our  intellectuality.  The  good,  the  true, 
the  great,  the  sublime — everything  grew  up  in  humanity, 
each  generation  through  millions  of  years  contributing  its 
share,  and  the  race  preserving  the  best,  until  man  has  the 
wonderful  nature  he  has  to-day,  and  society  its  wonderful 
institutions.  The  race  worked  it  all  out  by  itself.  Society 
is  a  natural  product.  The  individual  accounted  for  things 
on  this  theory,  then  that,  and  the  God  theory  is  one  of  the 
latest,  and  it  is  only  allegorically  true,  although  one  of  the 
most  beneficial  theories  ever  originated.  The  only  God 
there  is,  is  the  moral  and  social  nature  implanted  in  all  of  us 


232        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

by  society,  through  countless  ages  of  development,  and  the 
only  devil  there  is,  is  man's  individual  nature,  which  rises 
at  times  and  revolts  against  his  social  nature,  and  against 
organized  society;  and  the  remorse  the  individual  feels  is 
society  in  him,  blaming  him  for  not  living  according  to  it,  but 
according  to  his  individual  nature,  which,  if  followed  exclu- 
sively, would  not  permit  society  to  exist  in  its  present  highly 
developed  form.  An  individual  devoid  of  moral  sense  is  a 
criminal.  We  say  he  has  no  conscience,  no  sense  of  duty; 
that  is,  his  experience  in  society  has  failed  to  develop  in 
him  a  conscience  and  a  sense  of  duty,  something  that  occurs 
quite  often  to-day,  when,  through  our  disbelief  in  the 
church,  as  a  school,  we  have  forsaken  all  moral  teaching 
in  a  systematic  form,  simply  letting  the  individual  pick  up 
his  notions  of  morality  from  general  experience  in  society. 
The  criminal  does  not  respect  law  and  order,  the  structure 
of  society.  He  does  not  believe  in  expending  his  energies 
according  to  the  rules  laid  down  by  the  race.  He  expends 
his  energies  regardless  of  society. 

If  a  child  instead  of  working  for  money  steals  it,  or 
commits  any  common  crime,  society  punishes  him  by  fine, 
imprisonment,  or  disgrace.  Perhaps  the  burnt  child  may 
dread  the  fire  the  next  time  and  regulate  his  conduct 
accordingly.  If  so,  the  hurt  will  be  an  incipient  conscience. 
If  the  child  should  expend  its  energies  according  to  its 
remembered  hurt  from  the  wrong  expenditure,  and  society 
should  reward  it  by  commendation,  preferment,  liberty  and 
respect,  then  it  will  feel  an  exhilaration,  a  joy,  which  will  be 
the  beginning  of  a  sense  of  duty.  After  years  of  such  disci- 
pline, the  child  becomes  a  normal  human  being.  This  simple 
process  is  going  on  in  each  of  us  in  infancy,  childhood, 
youth,  maturity.  It  is  silent,  it  is  slow,  but  after  passing 
through  it,  a  normal  healthful  human  being  always  comes 
out  with  a  fully  developed  moral  sense. 

Just  as  our  mental  structures  are  developed  with  very  little 


THE  SUPHEMB   LAW  OF  ETHICS  233 

experience,  so  our  social  and  moral  structures  are  developed 
with  very  little  experience.  I  remember  when  a  child  of 
five  of  committing  a  misdemeanor,  and,  when  caught  and 
shamed  by  a  neighbor,  I  am  certain  that  I  have  never  felt  a 
more  perfect  compunction  of  conscience  in  all  my  life. 
Experience  shows  us  every  day  that  children  must  be  taught 
not  only  morality,  but  propriety  and  decency.  All  of 
which  is  done  with  very  little  punishment  and  reward,  if 
done  carefully  and  consistently.  The  most  inveterate 
hereditary  traits  of  criminality  can  be  educated  out  of  one  if 
taken  in  time  and  persistently  worked  at.  The  first  years 
of  a  child's  life  are  the  important  ones.  Then  it  is  that 
moral  principles  and  the  deep  intellectual  convictions  should 
be  laid.  Children  should  cease  to  be  playthings  for  parents. 

XII 

It  would  be  utterly  impossible  for  humanity  to  govern  the 
individual  bylaws  and  institutions  alone;  for  they  cannot 
come  close  enough  to  him.  They  cannot  reach  him.  That 
is  what  is  the  matter  with  our  civilization  to-day.  Who 
cannot  evade  the  law?  Who  cannot  deceive  society?  Who 
cannot  escape  physical  punishment?  Laws  cannot  be  made 
perfect  enough  to  enter  into  the  heart  of  man.  Institutions 
have  for  their  cardinal  function  the  development  of  the  moral 
and  social  senses  and  they  accomplish  it  by  the  control  of  the 
individual ;  yet  we  think  that  the  control  of  the  individual  is 
their  only  function.  And  again,  the  individual  thinks  the 
function  of  the  moral  and  social  senses  is  to  control  the  indi- 
vidual, when  in-  fact  their  cardinal  function  is  to  invent 
institutions  to  control  the  individual  by  punishment  and 
reward,  and  thereby  control  him  by  creating  within  him 
perfect  moral  and  social  senses.  It  is  through  the  moral 
and  social  senses  that  the  race  becomes  a  part  of  the  indi- 
vidual to  be  present  with  him  an  all-feeling  heart  and  an  all- 
seeing  eye  to  approve  or  condemn  the  uimost  secrets  of  his 


234        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

mind  and  heart,  to  punish  or  reward  the  inmost  secret  act 
of  his  life.  The  prime  function  of  the  social  sense  should 
be  to  develop  in  us  an  acute  moral  sense  and  through  it 
govern  the  individual ;  and  the  prime  function  of  tho  moral 
sense  should  be  to  develop  in  us  character  and  courage  to 
accept  the  highest  social  sense  possible  to  the  nature  of  man. 
The  primary  function  of  laws  and  institutions  is  to  develop 
the  moral  and  social  senses.  The  moral  and  social  senses 
are  the  laws  and  institutions  of  society  made  a  part  of  the 
individual  through  tne  law  of  external  repetition  and  should 
be  so  perfect  that  they  will  enforce  themselves  in  the 
absence  of  external  enforcement.  This  is  what  conscience 
and  duty  are  when  perfect  to-day. 

In  looking  back  over  our  lives,  we  can  see  now  our  ener- 
gies have  been  gradually  turned  to  social  advantage,  how 
from  the  most  incorrigible  and  unteachable  children,  we 
developed  under  the  inexorable  teaching  and  discipline  of 
society  (the  people  about  us)  into  moral  and  sensible  human 
beings.  Sometimes  when  the  youth  has  wealth,  position,  or 
genius,  it  shields  him  from  the  influence  of  social  punish- 
ments and  rewards,  and  he  never  becomes  normal.  Such 
persons  become  degenerates,  criminals,  oppressors,  tyrants 
and  often  become  so  powerful  that  they  make  laws,  institu- 
tions, a  kind  of  civilization  of  their  own,  and  if  powerful 
enough,  wreck  their  nation,  even  whole  civilizations.  The 
youth  who  makes  the  best  citizens  are  those  perfectly  amen- 
able to  society,  that  have  to  suffer  for  errors  and  mistakes, 
and  who  always  meet  with  reward  for  good  service.  The 
great  and  good  men  and  women  of  the  race  have  been  those 
who  have  felt  the  punishment  of  the  race  most,  and  have 
thus  appreciated  the  reward  most.  Humanity  punishes 
those  whom  it  loves,  and  those  whom  it  punishes  love  it. 
When  society  develops  in  one  an  acute  conscience,  a  high 
sense  of  duty,  makes  him  a  respecter  of  law  and  order,  not 
at  the  expense  of  all  progress,  a  worshiper  at  the  shrine  of 


THE  SUPREME  LAW  OF  ETHICS  235 

the  beautiful,  makes  him  a  believer  in  the  most  economic 
expenditure  of  energy  according  to  scientific  knowledge, 
society  can  leave  such  an  individual  unwatched,  for  he  car- 
ries within  his  own  character  and  mind  all  the  necessary 
ideals  to  direct  the  expenditure  of  his  individual  energy  into 
the  most  economic  channels  possible.  To  produce  such  an 
individual  as  this  will  be  the  object  of  the  scientific  system 
of  education  of  the  future,  and  naturalistic  ways  of  creating 
the  moral  and  social  senses,  persecution,  martyrdom,  will  be 
no  more.  The  supreme  law  of  ethics  will  be  realized  in  this 
scientific  system  of  education. 

XIII 

So,  after  all,  nature,  the  matter  and  energies  constituting 
the  universe,  is  a  continuous,  consistent  whole.  The  uni- 
versal process  not  being  produced  by  mind,  is  rather  difficult 
of  being  understood  by  mind ;  but  as  mind  is  a  product  of  it, 
with  careful,  patient  stndy  its  factors  can  be  found  in  nature, 
not,  however,  hi  their  organized  form,  but  instead  as  the  sim- 
ple energies  of  nature,  and,  not  harmoniously  adjusted  as  in 
the  mind,  but  dissipating  themselves  blindly,  as  in  nature. 
Studying  the  simple  energies  of  nature  in  their  blind  dissipa- 
tions the  great  law  of  repetition  is  discovered,  and  by  tracing 
its  manifestations  the  evolution  of  the  mind  is  ascertained. 
And  the  universal  process  not  being  produced  by  morality  and 
sociality,  it  is  difficult  to  trace  how  they  grew  up  in  nature, 
but  by  patient  investigation,  by  honest  and  courageous 
thought,  their  origin  can  be  determined.  By  studying  the 
energies  of  individuals  in  their  interminable  conflicts 
throughout  history  the  great  law  of  repetition  is  discovered, 
and  by  tracing  its  manifestations  in  the  race  the  evolution 
of  morality  and  sociality  is  seen.  Nature  instead  of  being 
the  work  of  an  omnipotent  God  is  the  result  of  the  adjust* 
ment  and  readjustment  of  the  radiant  and  gravitant  energies 
in  the  universal  process,  which,  no  doubt,  begins  and  ends 


236        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

and  begins  again,  taking  billions  of  years  to  make  a  cycle, 
during  which  we  see  the  energies  passing  from  the  inorganic, 
through  life,  mind,  society,  and  back  to  the  primal  mist  again, 
as  man  begins  and  ends  in  his  condensed  and  concentrated 
cycle,  which  we  call  life.  All  of  our  world  philosophies 
(God,  Nirvana,  the  Logos,  the  will  to  live)  are  guesses  at  this 
sublime  truth.  We  have  looked  at  nature  from  an  analytical 
point  of  view  and  end  by  looking  at  it  from  a  synthetical 
point  of  view.  What  to  us  is  intellect,  in  nature  is  simple 
physical  energy.  What  to  us  is  emotion,  in  nature  is  simple 
chemical  energy.  What  to  us  is  the  moral  sense,  to  primi- 
tive man  was  his  fear  of  an  object  that  hurt  him  or  his 
attraction  to  an  object  that  benefited  him.  Or  tracing  the 
phenomenon  farther  down  in  nature,  what  to  us  is  moral 
sense,  to  an  animal  is  its  ability  to  avoid  what  is  hurtful  and 
seek  what  is  beneficial.  As  was  stated  in  discussing  the 
development  of  the  senses,  if  any  new  energy  were  to 
appear  in  nature  that  it  would  create  within  man  a  sense 
for  its  apprehension,  and  this  occurred  when  human  energy 
arose  and  developed  the  moral  sense  as  we  see  it  in  civilized 
man  to-day.  But  tracing  the  phenomenon  still  further  down 
in  nature,  what  to  us  is  the  moral  sense  is  due  to  the  primal 
fact  of  nature  that  radiant  energy  forms  the  condition  of 
gravitant  energy,  and  that  some  forms  of  radiant  energy 
favor  organization  of  matter  and  other  forms  destroy  it. 
The  social  sense  is  based  on  the  primal  fact  that  radiant 
energy  traverses  the  entire  universe  and  cemmunicates  its 
conditions  to  whatever  object  it  comes  in  contact  with.  In 
the  animal  it  becomes  intellect,  in  man  the  social  sense. 
What  to  -us  is  society  is  but  an  equilibrium  of  forces,  order 
and  progress,  due  to  a  division  of  labor  of  the  units  of 
society  which  in  a  lower  form  shows  itself  in  sex,  as  male  and 
female,  in  a  still  lower  form  as  plants  and  animals,  and  in  its 
primal  form  it  shows  itself  in  the  phenomenon  of  gravitant 
and  radiant  energies  All  nature  is  one.  We  can  interpret 


THE  SUPREME  LAW  OF  ETHICS  237 

all  nature  in  terms  of  our  life,  and  our  life  in  terms  of 
nature;  thus  we  are  akin  to  everything  and  everything  is 
akin  to  us.  This  is  monism,  And  nature,  including  every- 
thing, is  due  to  the  universal  process  of  the  eternal  adjust- 
ment and  readjustment  of  the  radiant  and  gravitant  energies 
constituting  the  universe. 

At  last  we  are  face  to  face  with  things.  We  see  ourselves 
in  the  most  insignificant  phenomena  as  well  as  the  sublimest. 
All  nature  has  a  meaning  to  us — the  ceaseless  changes  in  the 
inorganic,  the  interminable  strivings  of  the  organic,  and  the 
complex  and  baffling  struggle  for  existence  in  the  social 
world — all  are  one  and  the  same  interminable  adjustment 
and  readjustment  of  gravitant  and  radiant  energies,  follow- 
ing the  great  law  of  repetition  from  primal  mist,  through 
the  organization  of  nature,  life,  mind  and  society,  back  to 
the  primal  mist  again  ad  infimtum. 

This  is  the  coming  true  of  the  allegory  of  primitive  man, 
the  Nirvana  of  the  Buddhist,  the  Kingdom  of  God  of  the 
Christian  Fathers,  the  Utopia  of  the  social  dreamer,  the  per- 
fect life  of  the  philosopher,  the  ideal  state  of  the  socialist, 
and  you  and  I  and  every  one  has  wondered  why  it  could 
not  come  true,  why  human  beings,  all  of  us,  the  whole  world, 
could  not  live  in  universal  harmony,  peace,  prosperity,  live 
our  better  selves,  and  life  be  full  of  beauty,  love,  kindness, 
goodness  and  happiness  for  all. 

The  supreme  law  of  ethics,  life  by  the  moral  and  social 
senses,  can  be  lived  by  each  of  us  to-day,  and  it  will  make  no 
difference  at  which  age  of  humanity  we  live,  our  lives  will  be 
the  same.  It  is  glorious  to  know  that  at  last  we  have 
reached  the  ultimate  in  human  conduct,  and  that  it  is 
assured  to  the  whole  human  race  in  the  future. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

BELIGION 

I 

To  apply  the  fifth  and  sixth  laws  of  motion,  the  supreme 
law  of  ethics,  the  direction  of  human  energy  by  the  moral 
and  social  senses,  to  rectify  the  existing  evils  of  society 
to-day,  to  orient  the  race  through  public  corporate  knowl- 
edge (the  social  sense) ,  to  expend  all  human  energy  with  the 
greatest  possible  economy,  to  socialize  humanity,  will  require 
an  incentive,  a  motive  commensurate  with  the  greatness  of 
the  undertaking.  Whence  the  dynamic  for  this  higher  order 
of  things?  The  answer  to  the  question,  How  shall  the 
human  race  be  saved?  is  the  same  to-day  as  it  was  yesterday, 
as  it  ever  will  be,  by  religion.  But  it  will  not  be  the  religion 
of  our  fathers  handed  down  by  tradition  (Christianity),  but 
the  religion  of  science  that  has  been  worked  out  from  a  nat- 
uralistic point  of  view,  placed  by  investigation,  by  study,  by 
analysis  and  synthesis  upon  a  foundation  in  fact,  so  that 
everybody  can  enjoy  it  and  be  sustained  by  it  in  living  the 
highest  life  that  humanity  is  capable  of.  It  will  be  the 
religion  of  our  fathers  stripped  of  superstition,  error,  mys- 
tery, and  clothed  in  the  light  of  scientific,  verifiable  truth, 
and  it  will  be  understood  as  a  natural  function,  and  be  a 
part  of  our  everyday  life,  as  the  religion  of  our  fathers  was 
before  hypocrisy  took  possession  of  the  world. 

Of  all  the  phenomena  of  the  individual  and  society,  per- 
haps there  is  none  more  imperfectly  understood  than  that  of 
religion.  What  is  religion?  It  has  innumerable  meanings 
from  the  fetishism  and  animism  of  the  savage  to  the  wor- 

238 


RELIGION  239 

ship  of  the  ideal  God  of  the  savant;  yet,  when  the  truth  is 
sifted  from  out  the  error,  it  is  found  that  true  religion  is  the 
instinct  that  develops,  protects  and  perfects  the  species, 
often  at  the  sacrifice  of  the  individual,  and  always  at  his 
service,  as  is  seen  displayed  in  every  family  of  animals,  from 
the  lowest  gregarious  animals  through  the  primates  up  to 
mankind.  We  see  throughout  the  animal  kingdom  mani- 
festations of  incipient  religion  due  to  mutual  aid;  for  exam- 
ple, in  the  social  organization  of  insects,  which  live  by 
mutual  service  alone,  ceasing  almost  to  be  individuals  in  the 
case  of  ants  and  bees ;  again,  in  the  mutual  service  of  higher 
animals,  as  among  pelicans,  which  fish  by  forming  a  half- 
circle  in  the  water  and  driving  their  prey  into  shore ;  and  as 
seen  in  our  common  crows,  in  their  military  order  in  flight, 
they  giving  commands  and  directions;  and  among  wild 
horses  when  attacked  by  wolves,  they  wheeling  into  circles 
and  driving  the  enemy  off;  and  in  elephants  when  feeding, 
they  posting  sentinels,  and  if  wishing  to  cross  an  open  space, 
sending  out  scouts,  their  discipline  to  leaders  being  perfect ; 
and  in  gorillas,  their  discipline  in  attack  and  retreat  being 
human  like,  the  males  bringing  up  the  rear  in  retreat,  and 
heroically  fighting,  if  need  be,  until  death — all  animals  of 
the  same  species  in  their  mutual  aid  to  one  another  in  their 
social  organizations  are  sustained  by  an  emotion,  which, 
when  experienced  by  man  under  similar  circumstances,  is 
called  religion.  Everywhere  in  nature  do  we  see  mutual 
service  of  animals  a  stimulus  to  a  powerful  emotional  condi- 
tion. This  is  not  only  service  towards  obtaining  sustenance, 
but  towards  the  making  of  life  something  else  than  a  feeding, 
as  is  seen  in  animals'  great  delight  in  play  and  in  communi- 
cating one  with  another,  not  to  mention  the  parliaments  they 
hold  for  sexual  purposes,  and  species-protection  through 
countless  numbers.  The  migratory  instinct  throughout  the 
animal  kingdom,  from  the  lowest  animal  to  man,  is  a  form 
of  religion.  No  instinct  in  all  creation  could  make  the 


240       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

mother  bird  desert  her  fledging  young  as  does  the  migratory 
instinct,  except  it  be  an  incipient  form  of  religion.  The 
species  is  so  much  more  important  than  the  individual  that 
when  its  influence  is  felt  the  cry  of  starving  young  is  not 
heard.  And  man  has  been  sustained  in  his  migrations  into 
the  bleak  north,  across  the  trackless  oceans,  into  the 
unknown  wilderness,  by  this  same  religious  instinct  that 
achieved  for  the  race  in  the  individual's  hardships  and  death. 
In  every  species  of  animal,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  if 
the  species  did  not  help  to  protect  the  individual,  it  would 
soon  become  extinct,  and  if  the  individual  did  not  help  to 
protect  the  species,  it  would  soon  become  extinct.  All 
animals  more  or  less  depend  upon  species-protection  for  their 
existence.  And  all  species  of  animals  depend  upon  this 
indomitable  instinct  of  the  individual  for  their  protection. 
There  is  no  instinct  so  little  understood  as  this  one.  But 
when  we  remember  the  fierce  joy  we  experience  in  executing 
our  instincts,  which,  no  doubt,  to  a  being  devoid  of  them, 
would  be  inexplicable,  we  can  have  some  conception  of  the 
motor  power  that  makes  fish,  for  example,  lash  themselves  to 
death  over  rapids  and  falls  to  reach  the  headwaters  of 
streams  in  their  yearly  migrations,  or  why  birds  congregate 
in  such  enormous  flocks  that  extermination  is  impossible  no 
matter  the  number  of  enemies.  The  emotional  reaction  to 
such  conduct  must  be  intense,  irresistible.  This  is  the 
beginning  of  that  emotion,  which  among  men  is  called 
religion;  and  man  knows  little  more  about  it  than  the 
animals. 

If  the  theory  of  evolution  is  true,  then  incipient  forms  of 
religion  should  be  found  among  the  lower  animals  the  same 
as  incipient  forms  of  all  other  emotions.  It  is  a  common 
error  to  believe  that  morality  is  seen  throughout  nature,  but 
that  religion  is  exclusively  human.  The  facts  are,  morality, 
race-serving  conduct,  is  the  cause  of  religion,  and  neither  is 
seen  except  among  living  beings,  and  no  matter  where  seen, 


RELIGION  241 

among  the  lowest  animals  or  the  highest  men,  morality  always 
produces  religion.  Morality  is  that  line  of  conduct  which 
protects,  perpetuates  and  perfects  the  species,  the  race,  and 
it  always  results  in  the  emotion  of  religion.  It  makes  no 
difference  how  remote  the  race-serving  function  is,  if  it 
accomplishes  that  purpose,  it  produces  the  emotion  of  relig- 
ion, hence  the  great  diversity  of  religious  service;  yet 
when  traced  to  their  legitimate  end  all  religious  phenomena 
are  race-serving,  race-producing,  race-perfecting.  What  are 
the  feelings  among  all  gregarious  animals  which  cause  the 
leaders  to  sacrifice  their  lives,  if  need  be,  for  the  protection 
of  the  species?  If  self-preservation  is  an  instinct,  is  not 
species-protection  one  also?  It  is  this  tendency  in  the  lower 
animals  that  develops  into  religion  in  mankind.  Religion 
is  a  sociologic  instinct  that  preserves,  perpetuates,  protects 
and  perfects  the  tribe,  the  nation,  the  race  among  mankind. 
Among  animals  it  is  not  recognized  as  religion  at  all,  and  is 
called  by  many  other  names  among  men,  but  it  is  one  and 
the  same  instinct  all  the  time.  If  some  such  instinct  did  not 
bind  the  species  together,  perpetuate  it,  protect  it,  develop  it 
and  perfect  it,  it  would  separate,  become  extinct  from  lack 
of  organization.  Those  species  of  animals  which  have  shown 
the  religious  instinct  the  most  highly  developed  are  the  ones 
that  have  survived  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  It  is  to 
religion  that  humanity  owes  its  existence  upon  the  earth 
to-day.  Those  races  of  men,  both  in  the  New  and  the  Old 
Worlds,  which  have  shown  the  highest  forms  of  religious  wor- 
ship are  the  ones  that  have  reached  the  highest  civilization. 
Witness  Peru,  Mexico,  China,  India,  Egypt.  Our  western 
civilization,  while  not  accounted  religious,  because  it  is 
untheological,  since  the  Dark  Ages,  is  really  the  most  relig- 
ious of  any  civilization  so  far  developed ;  for  in  all  history 
what  civilization  has  shown  greater  unity,  solidarity  of  race 
in  useful  service  to  humanity  than  western  civilization  at 
the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century?  The  religion  of 


242      THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF   HUMANITY 

western  civilization  is  the  religion  of  usefulness,  sympathy, 
science,  and  not  one  of  meaningless  beliefs  and  ceremonies. 
Eeligion  is  the  ultimate  development  of  the  primitive 
internal  energy  constituting  matter  that  causes  it  during  t:  e 
universal  process  of  the  adjustment  and  readjustment  of 
internal  gravitant  energy  and  external  radiant  energy  to 
unite  into  higher  and  higher  organizations,  beginning  with 
molecular  compounds,  and  ending  with  humanity.  Religion 
is  the  ultimate  form  of  the  internal  energy  of  matter  which 
binds  organizations  together.  It  begins  with  chemism  in 
chemical  combinations,  then  extends  to  living  compounds. 
In  animals  it  manifests  itself  as  selfishness.  The  animal 
kingdom  may  be  considered  a  process  in  originating  higher 
and  higher  organizations  of  matter,  the  higher  sacrificing 
the  lower  until  man  places  all  other  animals  in  subserviency 
to  himself,  and  ends  by  the  race  placing  the  individual  in 
subjection  to  it,  thus  realizing  the  highest  possible  organiza- 
tion of  matter  and  energy.  In  a  still  more  differentiated 
form  internal  energy  unites  the  sexes  in  love.  In  its  highest 
differentiated  form  it  begins  by  binding  animals  into  species, 
men  into  clans,  tribes,  nations,  and  finally,  as  religion,  it 
unites  humanity  into  one  organism.  The  law  of  internal 
repetition  repeats  the  chemical  compound,  the  living  ani- 
mal, the  species,  the  tribe,  the  nation,  over  and  over  again ; 
but  subject  to  the  law  of  external  repetition  which  registers 
in  the  chemical  compound,  the  animal,  the  species,  the  tribe 
or  the  nation,  the  external  energies  surrounding  it,  adapting 
it  to  its  environment,  thus  producing  greater  and  greater 
organizations,  until  the  time  will  come  when  the  whole  race 
will  be  one  perfect  organism  due  to  the  greatest,  the  strong- 
est power  known  to  humanity  (religion) ,  the  highest  possible 
development  of  the  internal  energy  of  matter.  Eeligion  is 
the  social  ego,  as  will,  self  is  the  individual  ego,  and  it  is 
upon  religion  that  the  moral  and  social  senses  are  built,  as  it 
is  upon  the  will  that  the  emotions  and  the  intellect  are 


RELIGION  243 

built.  Religion  is  the  energy  of  society,  as  feeling  is  the 
energy  of  the  individual,  and  as  chemism  is  the  energy  of 
chemical  compounds.  There  is  thus  a  unity  and  evolution 
in  the  internal  energies  of  matter,  as  there  is  in  the  external 
energies  constituting  its  conditions. 

II 

The  simple  joy  of  life  is  wonderful — the  delight  of  sexual 
love  has  been  the  theme  of  the  poet  since  language  began ; 
but  the  ecstasy  of  religion  is  incomparable.  No  wonder  it  is 
said  to  be  divine.  The  religious  world  justly  cries  out 
against  our  pseudo-science  which  would  rob  it  of  religion  by 
treating  it  as  a  kind  of  racial  aberration.  Religion  has  ever 
been,  and  will  ever  be,  the  great  compensation  to  the  indi- 
vidual for  his  service  and  sacrifice  to  the  race.  Religion  is 
the  immortal  race  in  us,  and  we  in  it.  It  is  through  religion 
that  all  men  are  akin.  It  is  the  tie  that  binds  the  social 
organism.  Religion  is  the  joy  of  man's  social  life,  as  the  joy 
of  living  is  the  religion  of  his  individual  life.  It  sustains  the 
same  relation  to  man's  social  nature  that  love  sustains  to  his 
individual  nature.  It  is  man's  social  being.  It  is  the 
greatest,  grandest,  most  sublime  emotion  that  the  human 
heart  is  susceptible  to,  that  human  life  is  capable  of,  that 
society  can  produce.  Religion,  now  dormant  for  want  of  a 
rational  incentive  to  touch  it  into  life  and  give  it  respect- 
ability, for  the  want  of  proper  guidance,  for  the  want  of  an 
intellectual  sanction,  is  amply  able  to  counteract  the  indi- 
vidual law  of  self-interest  by  producing  infinitely  more  hap- 
piness through  the  higher  law  of  social-interest,  creating 
religious  ecstasy  by  doing  humane  service  instead  of  divine 
sacrifice.  It  is  through  religion  that  the  fifth  and  sixth 
laws  of  motion,  the  moral  and  social  senses,  the  supreme  law 
of  ethics,  will  be  applied  to  existing  conditions  in  society 
to-day,  and  the  socialization  of  the  race  inevitably  realized. 

Never  before  in  the  history  of  the  race  has  the  function 


244       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

of  religion  been  consciously  understood,  been  controlled  by 
knowledge,  or  been  caused  by  conscious  effort  to  work 
directly  for  the  benefit  of  the  race.  Heretofore  religious 
emotion  has  been  generally  produced  by  any  belief,  custom  or 
action  that  conserved  the  species,  the  tribe,  the  nation,  the 
race,  no  matter  how  remotely,  how  indirectly,  or  how  blindly 
it  did  it.  Religion  heretofore  has  preserved  the  race  as  an 
instinct ;  now  it  will  preserve  the  race  by  conscious  effort. 
No  matter  how  absurd,  how  wicked,  how  ugly  a  common 
belief  may  have  been,  if  it  held  the  tribe  together,  if  it  pro- 
duced social  unity,  it  aroused  religious  emotion.  No  matter 
how  absurd,  how  wicked,  how  ugly  a  ceremony  may  have 
been,  if  it  held  the  tribe,  the  nation  together,  if  it  produced 
social  solidarity,  it  aroused  religious  emotion.  And  thus 
groping  blindly,  by  the  law  of  repetition  and  the  law  of 
natural  selection,  the  race  has  at  last  reached  a  rational  con- 
ception of  the  true  function  of  religion;  finding  that  it  is 
that  emotion  which  is  always  produced  when  some  race- 
conserving,  race-developing  or  race-perfecting  function,  no 
matter  how  simple  or  how  sublime,  is  performed,  from  com- 
mon labor  to  the  martyr's  death;  or  how  absurd  or  how 
intelligent,  from  the  savage's  weird  dance  to  the  scientist's 
untiring  efforts  at  inventing  machines  to  use  the  energies  of 
nature,  or  the  statesman's  arduous  labor  in  originating  laws, 
so  that  all  the  energies  of  the  race  may  be  expended  with  the 
greatest  possible  economy.  This  is  why  it  is  that  truth  has 
ever  had  its  martyrs;  why  no  nation  or  no  race  has  had  a 
monopoly  of  religion;  why  religion  is  indigenous  to  mankind, 
from  the  lowest  savagery  to  the  highest  civilization. 

The  trouble  with  an  attempt  at  a  naturalistic  exposition  of 
religion  is  that  the  word  is  one  of  such  wide  meaning.  To 
the  scientist  busily  engaged  in  some  special  science,  religion 
is  a  mental  condition  of  primitive  man  completely  absent  in 
himself  and  co-laborers ;  yet  he  is  sustained  in  his  difficult 
experimentations,  comparisons,  classifications  and  verifica- 


RELIGION  245 

tions  by  a  love  of  truth  and  the  joy  of  possessing  it  and 
imparting  it  to  the  race — a  form  of  religion.  To  another 
kind  of  scientist  religion  is  a  set  of  beliefs,  ceremonies,  and 
forms  eminently  respectable,  venerable,  sacred,  and  not  to  be 
questioned,  but  to  be  obeyed,  com'plied  with,  rever- 
enced— a  world  in  which  the  principles  of  science  do  not 
hold,  religious  emotion  being  generated  by  protecting  these 
hallowed  beliefs  from  the  unwarranted  attacks  of  agnostics, 
infidels  and  atheists.  Such  scientists  are  very  popular  wi'th 
theologians,  and  are  usually  decorated  with  all  the  honors  in 
the  gift  of  princes  and  potentates.  They  are  great  men  while 
alive —  Religion  is  one  thing  to  one  man,  another  thing 
to  another;  but  if  the  stimulus  creating  it  is  traced  to  its 
source,  it  will  be  found  that  either  directly  or  remotely  the 
services  rendered  in  some  way  bind  the  tribe,  the  nation, 
the  race  together;  make  it  possible  of  social  organization. 

The  soldier's  religion  is  military  glory.  The  business 
man's  religion  is  love  of  money;  and  it  is  not  so  bad  a  relig- 
ion, for  what  would  humanity  be  without  wealth,  the  meas- 
ure of  success?  There  is  much  sustaining  power  in  the  love 
of  money.  It  is  by  no  means  the  worst  thing  in  the  world. 
The  worst  thing  in  the  world  is  ignorance.  The  statesman's 
religion  is  patriotism.  The  artist's  religion  is  exhilaration 
from  his  work.  The  scientist's  religion  is  searching  for 
truth  and  imparting  it  to  mankind.  The  mother's  religion 
is  in  caring  for,  protecting,  rearing,  and  educating  her  chil- 
dren. The  savage's  religion  is  performing  ceremonies  that 
pertain  to  subsistence,  the  perpetuation  of  the  species,  or  the 
protection  of  the  tribe.  All  of  these  ways  of  dissipating 
human  energy  tend  to  benefit  the  race,  only  the  expenditure 
of  energy  is  not  perfectly  economic ;  not  being  controlled  by 
the  moral  and  social  senses,  much. of  it  is  lost  in  opposition 
and  neutralization;  but  in  the  end  humanity  is  served. 
Individual  control  of  energy  is  better  than  no  control  at  all. 
It  is  society  by  vice  instead  of  society  by  virtue.  It  is 


246       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

society  by   egoism   instead  of    society  by   altruism.     It  is 
society  by  feeling  instead  of  society  by  intelligence. 

The  common  people  alone  to-day  are  religious  in  the  tra- 
ditional sense  of  the  word.  They  alone  try  to  be  religious 
according  to  the  Bible  and  the  church  in  the  Western  World, 
according  to  the  sacred  books  of  all  peoples.  Few  of  the 
ruling  classes  of  western  civilization  believe  anything  in  the 
divinity  of  Christianity.  They  use  it  to  uphold  their  class 
distinction  whatever  it  may  be,  priestly,  military,  or  nobility. 
Orthodox  Christianity  is  very  useful  to  the  reigning  classes, 
and  many  is  the  reformer  who  will  wince  when  he  reads 
what  I  am  saying  about  religion,  for  fear  it  will  be  used  to 
uphold  superstition.  This  will  not  be  so.  Christianity  is 
but  a  metamorphosis  of  Buddhism;  Buddhism  a  develop- 
ment of  Brahmanism;  and  the  religion  of  the  future  will  be 
grafted  upon  Christianity.  The  race  never  loses  any  good 
thing.  The  vast  organization  of  the  church  will  not  be 
destroyed ;  it  will  be  changed,  resurrected.  Where  did  the 
Catholic  church  come  from?  Certainly  not  from  the  Bible. 
It  came  from  the  ancient  Roman  religion  and  hundreds  01 
other  sources,  being  an  accumulation  of  humanity  since  it 
began.  So  of  the  religion  of  the  future.  AH  that  is  good  An 
any  religion  will  live ;  all  that  is  bad  will  die.  The  church- 
man need  not  fear  that  God  in  a  fit  of  absent-mindedness 
will  let  the  church  be  destroyed.  That  which  is  good  cannot 
be  destroyed ;  for  tne  good  in  this  sense  is  God.  One  need 
not  have  any  solicitude  about  what  is  good ;  it  cannot  fail. 
"But  no  amount  of  advertisement  can  give  permanent  success 
,  to  evil  or  error  however  venerable. 

In  all  our  hearts  is  a  desire  to  do  something  for  the  better- 
ment of  the  race^  This  is  religion.  Every  youth  by  nature 
is  a  reformer.  His  object  in  life  is  to  perfect  humanity 
He  is  intoxicated  with  his  dream.  But  the  exigencies  of  fife 
soon  cool  his  ardor.  He  loves,  marries,  begins  business, 
becomes  enthralled  in  the  meshes  of  commercial  life,  is 


RELIGION  247 

entangled  in  the  industrial  and  business  machine.  He 
attempts  to  do  things,  and  fails.  His  enthusiasm  dies  out; 
and  by  thirty  all  the  dreams  of  his  youth  disappear  and  his 
ideals  are  dead.  It  is  the  youth  of  the  race  who  are  relig- 
ious in  the  true  sense  of  the  word;  but  the  practicality  of  life 
makes  one  live  religion  as  interpreted  in  his  own  day,  and 
not  for  all  time.  Still  back  of  contemporaneous  life,  over 
it  all,  running  through  it  all,  is  a  deep  religious  conscious- 
ness. All  of  this  great  strife  is  for  humanity.  The  pluto- 
crat, after  robbing  the  masses,  tries  to  soothe  his  conscience 
by  turning  philanthropist.  The  tyrant,  after  establishing 
absolute  power,  grants  here  a  charter,  there  a  privilege,  and 
in  the  end  undoes  all  he  lived  for.  It  is  religion  that  claims 
us  all  in  the  end.  The  race  is  larger  than  any  individual, 
than  any  class.  It,  after  all,  controls.  Sooner  or  later  it  gets 
the  homage  of  us  all.  If  we  were  not  constantly  stimulated 
by  doing  our  duty  to  the  race,  by  subordinating  our  indi- 
vidual wills  to  the  social  will,  by  accepting  society's  correc- 
tions of  our  individual  ways  of  expending  our  energies,  we 
would  soon  cease  to  find  an  abiding  interest  in  life  and  be- 
come degenerate.  The  most  miserable  human  beings  are 
those  who  live  either  above  the  human  race  or  below  it — 
the  powerful  and  the  pariahs.  The  happiest  are  those  in 
closest  touch  with  the  aspirations,  hopes,  and  aims  of  the 
commonality  of  the  race. 

When  we  note  the  great  endeavor,  the  arduous  labor,  the 
ceaseless  toil  which  persons  undergo  to  accomplish  their 
ambitions  for  honor,  fame,  glory,  wealth,  we  should  see  in 
their  behavior  some  deeper  motive  than  that  of  individual 
gratification.  It  must  have  been  religion  that  sustained 
Spencer  and  Darwin,  as  well  as  Comte,  in  their  life-long 
search  after  truth.  The  joy  of  art  is  a  species  of  religion. 
The  love  of  ennobling  fame  is  equally  divine.  The  desire  to 
be  immortal  in  literature,  science,  statesmanship  is  to  bo 
placed  in  the  same  category.  The  most  sordid  miser  would 


248       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

risk  his  life  to  snatch  a  child  irom  under  the  feet  of  a  run- 
away horse.  What  is  heroism  but  the  very  tap-root  of  relig- 
ion? It  was  the  hero  in  the  species  who  originated  it  away 
down  in  the  scale  of  animal  development.  Any  and  all 
forms  of  service  which  tend  to  develop  or  perfect  the  race  pro- 
duce some  form  of  religious  emotion,  no  matter  whether  the 
service  be  secular  or  sacred. 

Ill 

One  of  the  reasons  why  religion  is  a  phenomenon  not 
easily  understood  is  because  it  is  a  subject  not  open  to  study. 
Like  all  instincts,  it  must  not  be  questioned  by  the  indi- 
vidual, but  obeyed.  It  is  sacred.  But  the  time  has  come 
in  human  development  when,  to  perform  its  true  function, 
religion  must  become  conscious,  must  cease  to  be  an  instinct, 
and  become  a  rational  emotion  through  the  social  sense,  as 
one's  ego  became  a  rational  emotion  through  the  intellect. 
Love  has  performed  its  function  of  perpetuating  the  indi- 
vidual blindly ;  but  it  will  perform  it  better  when  the  prin- 
ciples of  stirpiculture  are  applied  to  it.  So  religion  held 
together  and  developed  the  race  blindly;  but  it  will  do  it 
better  under  a  scientific  social  sense  than  under  divine  faith 
or  blind  instinct.  In  human  life  the  religious  value  of 
work,  human  conduct,  must  be  determined  scientifically  and 
performed  accordingly.  Vast  importance  should  not  be 
attributed  to  some  really  useless  ceremony,  custom  or  con- 
duct that  can  just  as  well  be  replaced  by  some  useful  service 
to  the  race.  Elaborate  ceremonies  become  absurd  when 
humanity  develops  beyond  the  childhood  of  nations.  We  no 
longer  delight  in  a  story  told  by  pictures  after  we  have 
learned  to  read.  Ceremony  has  had  its  day.  The  symbol 
no  longer  satisfies  or  suffices.  The  race  has  reached  a  stage 
in  its  development  where  all  vicarious  services  have  ceased 
to  meet  the  requirements.  Fact  must  take  the  place  of  fic- 
tion, truth  the  place  of  allegory,  and  religion  must  be  based 


RELIGION  249 

on  morality  instead  of  mysterious  beliefs  and  spectacular 
ceremonies.  The  only  civilization  so  far  in  the  history  of 
the  race  that  has  accorded  physical  labor  any  religious  value 
is  the  present  one,  and  it  very  scantily;  but  it  will  be  found 
from  now  on  that  whatever  is  of  utility  to  the  race  will  bo 
deemed  of  greatest  value  in  the  future,  when  society  will 
live  under  perfected  moral  and  social  senses. 

To  substantiate  the  position  here  taken  of  the  sociologic 
function  of  religion,  I  cite  the  success  with  which  religious 
nations  have  triumphed  over  irreligious  nations.  Of  the 
religious  history  of  peoples  the  best  known  is  that  of  the 
Hebrews.  They  maintain  a  most  unique  nationality  now 
without  a  country,  that  most  indispensable  thing  to  a  nation. 
The  real  history  of  the  Jewish  religion,  based  on  monotheism, 
dates  back  of  the  history  of  the  Jews  before  they  were  sep- 
arated from  the  Egyptians,  and  can  be  traced  even  to  the 
ancient  Persians.  It  is  a  good  illustration  of  the  fact  that 
whatever  is  beneficial  to  the  face  is  never  lost.  The  Jews 
owe  their  nationality  to  their  religion. 

The  belief  in  one  God  ruling  everything  is  the  greatest 
hypothesis  invented  by  the  mind  of  man  in  the  past.  It  has 
accomplished  more  good  for  the  race  than  any  other.  The 
profoundest  surprise  anyone  can  experience  is  to  learn  that 
the  belief  in  God  is  only  an  allegory.  But  to  analyze  and  syn- 
thesize the  facts  of  nature,  life,  mind  and  society,  and  know 
that  the  race,  and  not  God,  is  the  correlate  of  man,  to  see 
for  the  first  time  in  all  history  what  man  really  is,  to  pos- 
sess a  system  of  monistic  philosophy  which  will  do  for  the 
race  in  the  future  all  that  its  precursor  (theology)  did  for 
humanity  in  the  past,  and  which  will  replace  supernatural- 
ism  with  naturalism,  is  the  greatest  theory,  the  grandest 
philosophy  possible  to  the  human  mind.  Nothing  good 
is  lost  to  the  race.  Evolution  does  not  mean  that;  but  it 
does  mean  that  new  good  is  forever  being  acquired,  and  that 
even  to  the  great  good  of  a  belief  in  one  God  may  be  added  the 


250       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMAXITY 

greater  good  of  knowing  what  everything  really  is,  and  thereby 
realizing  the  ultimate  possibility  of  matter  and  energy  in  the 
unity  of  the  race  which  God  symbolized. 

In  the  seventh  century  Mohammed,  in  the  brief  space  of  a 
life-time,  established  a  powerful  empire  based  on  monothe- 
ism; and  this  empire  still  exists.  The  great  Greek  and 
Roman  civilizations  were  almost  devoid  of  distinctive  religions 
phenomena,  their  religion  being  that  of  politics,  patriotism, 
and  artistic  and  social  customs.  With  all  their  knowledge, 
all  their  wealth,  art  and  grandeur,  they  gave  way  to  the 
crude  Christianity  of  the  first  century  because  of  its  superi- 
ority in  being  a  religion  able  to  bind  all  classes  into 
one  unique  social  organism,  the  Roman  Catholic  church. 
These  facts  demonstrate  that  the  enduring  people,  the  last- 
ing nation,  is  not  the  rich,  nor  the  wise,  nor  the  refined 
people,  but  the  religious  people.  The  Chinese,  the  oldest 
nation  in  the  history  of  the  race,  is  the  most  religious;  and 
it  is  to  its  religion,  the  worship  of  ancestors,  that  its  vitality 
is  due.  The  power  of  religion  in  perpetuating  a  people  is 
seen  everywhere  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  "Witness  the 
ancient  Peruvians  and  the  high  civilization  found  by  the  Span- 
iards in  Mexico.  Both  were  due  to  the  indigenous  religion 
of  these  respective  peoples.  It  was  the  religion  of  patriotism 
that  caused  the  Greeks  to  die  at  the  pass  of  Thermopylae, 
and  it  was  religion  that  enabled  the  Boers  of  South  Africa  to 
battle  with  the  great  English  Empire  for  three  long  years 
before  they  were  conquered.  It  is  the  absence  of  a  national 
religion  that  causes  the  Irish  people  to-day  to  be  trampled 
on  as  they  are ;  they  cannot  unite.  They  are  religious,  not  for 
themselves,  but  for  the  head  of  the  Roman  church. 

Religion,  whether  good  or  bad,  is  a  sociological  instinct 
which  perpetuates  a  tribe,  a  nation,  and  which  will  ultimately 
perfect  the  race.  There  is  no  doubt  about  the  crude  hero- 
worship  of  the  savage  being  the  progenitor  of  the  most  spiritual 
religion  of  to-day.  The  savage's  apparently  useless  religion 


RELIGION  251 

is  the  forerunner  of  the  religion  of  Tolstoi,  who  would  apply 
the  Golden  Rule  to  society.  But  religion  may  not  only  start 
low,  it  may  degenerate.  It  may  seem  far-fetched  to  classify 
the  negro's  superstition  about  the  rabbit's  foot  with  the  irre- 
sistible tendency  of  the  society  woman  to  go  to  some  fashion- 
able church  on  a  Sunday  morning  to  display  hat  and  gown ; 
yet  one  as  well  as  the  other  is  remotely  a  form  of  religion  of 
its  kind,  and  the  reaction,  when  the  stimulus  is  acted  upon, 
results  in  religious  emotion. 

That  what  is  called  secular  life  has  any  religious  value  is 
a  proposition  our  theologians  have  not  deemed  worth 
while  considering,  their  whole  theory  of  religion  being  only 
symbolically  true,  not  compassing  all  of  life ;  but  it  is  the 
religious  value  of  secular  life  that  most  needs  consideration 
to-day,  so  that  only  those  undertakings  may  be  gone  into 
which  are  most  conducive  to  human  advancement.  The 
reason  why  modern  civilization,  although  not  conscious  of  it, 
is  really  the  most  religious  the  race  has  yet  produced  is 
that  all  kinds  of  useful  service  to  the  race  is  compensated 
for  by  being  considered  honorable  and  noble.  Our  life  to-day 
would  be  deemed  irreligious  if  judged  by  the  religion  of  the 
past,  which  was  made  up  of  useless  and  meaningless  ceremo- 
nies and  absurd  beliefs;  but  judged  by  actual  service  to  hu- 
manity, it  is  the  greatest  and  most  religious  life  the  race  has 
yet  produced.  Even  in  our  own  life  to-day  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  lines  of  work  that  are  the  most  satisfactory  are  those 
which  are  truly  useful,  as  agriculture,  manufacture,  com- 
merce ,*and  those  that  are  the  least  satisfactory  are  the  profes  • 
sions,  speculation,  and  the  life  of  the  idle  classes.  No  one  can 
be  happy  unless  he  is  useful  to  the  race.  No  one  can  be 
healthful  socially  unless  he  is  beneficial  to  the  race.  The 
only  real  life  there  is  for  the  individual  is  to  live  and  work 
for  humanity,  that  humanity  may  live  and  work  for  him. 

The  future  of  humanity  depends  upon  naturalism  being 
able  to  arouse  the  emotion  of  religion,  so  that  humanity  can 


252       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

overcome  individualism  by  the  supreme  ecstasy  of  religion 
which  conscious  social  service  will  produce.  One  thing  is  cer- 
tain, cooperation  cannot  succeed  simply  because  it  is  justi- 
fied by  the  intellect,  by  proof  that  it  is  the  most  economical 
way  of  doing  things,  for  that  has  been  tried  time  and  again  by 
various  socialistic  enterprises  and  has  always  failed.  Sociali- 
zation of  the  race  will  be  accomplished  because  the  moral  and 
social  senses  will  base  religion  on  morality;  and  religion,  thus 
enlightened,  will  sweep  away  individualism  with  cooperation, 
as  it  has  always  done  when  directed  towards  it ,  and  then  the 
social  sense  will  make  the  socialization  of  the  race  sure  by 
demonstrating  the  economy  of  the  energies  of  nature  under  it. 

IV 

It  is  only  within  the  nineteenth  century  that  religion  was 
considered  a  natural  phenomenon,  and  it  will  be  in  the  twen- 
tieth century  that  its  true  function  will  be  determined  and 
realized.  Heretofore  man  has  not  been  the  object  of  study 
in  religious  phenomena,  but  instead  some  extraneous 
object — God,  Satan,  and  other  ulterior  powers.  Now  the 
full  import  of  the  Grecian  maxim,  "Know  thyself,"  is  real- 
ized, meaning  that  man  is  the  center  of  gravity  of  the  social 
world,  the  source  of  all  social  phenomena,  the  object  of  all, 
and  society  but  an  indirect  object  to  perfect  tne  real  object, 
the  individual. 

And  if  it  is  true  that  religion  created  a  great  empire 
within  the  lifetime  of  one  man  which  has  existed  a  thousand 
years  with  no  sign  of  extinction,  as  it  did  in  the  case  of 
Mohammed*,  so  it  is  also  true  that  irreligion  can  destroy  a 
great  nation  in  the  lifetime  of  one  man.  "Witness  France 
under  Louis  the  Fourteenth.  The  greatest  irreligion  is  to 
have  some  class  in  a  nation  use  the  social  organization  for  its 
own  special  benefit,  as  did  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  who  said: 
"I  am  the  State."  But  if  the  exploiting  class  is  large  and 
partly  useful,  as  our  plutocrats  or  the  English  nobility,  the 


RELIGION  253 

integrity  of  the  nation  is  not  so  much  in  danger,  for  human- 
ity can  stand  much  injustice;  but  as  the  exploiting  class 
becomes  smaller  and  smaller,  as  in  Rome  at  the  time  of  its 
fall,  and  as  in  western  civilization  to-day  in  many  nations, 
the  danger  of  national  degeneration  becomes  more  and  more 
imminent.  Modern  class  society  is  upon  the  verge  of 
deterioration.  The  greatest  nations,  England,  France  and 
Germany,  are  becoming  socialistic  from  sheer  necessity. 
Think  of  the  paupers  in  the  city  of  London,  one  in  every 
five !  The  United  States  is  as  irreligious  as  any  of  the  mod- 
ern nations  in  the  sense  of  perverting  the  social  organization 
to  private  use^  yet,  owing  to  its  national  resources,  to  its 
democracy,  the  masses  can  suffer  much  injustice  and  still 
reach  a  larger  life  than  the  people  of  the  Old  World. 

As  the  nations  of  antiquity,  Babylon,  Egypt,  Eome,  went 
down  from  irreligion,  that  is,  ceased  to  perform  the  func- 
tions of  developing  individuality  through  sociality,  so  will 
the  nations  of  to-day  be  destroyed;  meaning  by  irreligion, 
society  for  the  benefit  of  the  few  instead  of  society  for  the 
benefit  of  all.  If  the  race  is  not  organized  for  all,  what  is  it 
organized  for?  Certainly  not  for  the  few.  But  always  in  the 
history  of  the  race  a  few  usurp  the  powers  of  the  nation ; 
then  it  goes  to  pieces  by  the  process  of  degeneration,  revolu- 
tion, or  subjugation. 

Sometimes  religion  itself  in  the  form  of  theology  is  used 
to  reduce  the  many  to  the  wishes  of  the  few.  Under  such  a 
regime  oppression  lasts  for  a  long  time;  but  in  the  end,  as  in 
Eussia  to-day,  true  religion,  social  utility,  asserts  itself,  and 
rights  and  privileges  are  extended  to  all  the  people  or  the 
nation  goes  to  pieces.  The  life  of  man  is  so  brief,  and  his- 
tory so  imperfect,  that  it  is  difficult  to  examine  the  history  of 
humanity  in  the  light  of  naturalistic  philosophy. 

The  terminology  of  theology  can  be  readily  supplanted  by 
that  of  scientific  sociology.  Instead  of  faith  read  the  social 
sense.  Instead  of  salvation  being  free,  it  is  subject  to  an 


254       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

educational  qualification.  Instead  of  God  read  humanity. 
The  all-seeing  eye  is  conscience;  the  all-feeling  heart  is  sym- 
pathy, duty.  Man's  moral  sense  is  society  in  the  individual 
to  watch  his  individual  acts  and  report  them  to  society 
through  his  social  nature  punishing  him  with  remorse,  shame, 
and  misery.  Instead  of  the  Holy  Spirit  read  religion  due  to 
actual  social  service  to  humanity.  When  once  humanity 
knows  what  to  do  to  perfect  itself,  there  will  be  as  much 
advancement  made  in.  social  progress  in  one  century  as  we 
have  made  in  mechanical  progress  durfng  the  nineteenth 
century.  The  reason  that  so  little  is  done  by  humanity  for 
its  own  salvation  is  because  it  is  working  through  the  alle- 
gorical plan  of  primitive  humanity.  Think  of  what  we  have 
accomplished  working  blindly  under  theology,  and  what  may 
be  done  under  a  conscious  social  sense  when  we  know 
the  factors  of  socialization !  When  society  is  conceived  as  an 
organism  that  is  perfected  by  religion,  then  social  progress 
and  social  perfection  will  be  assured. 

If  religion  cannot  be  thus  made  conscious,  be  based  on 
intelligence,  the  social  sense,  instead  of  blind  fafth,  then  the 
race  is  destined  to  be  devoid  of  religion,  for*to-day  our  tra- 
ditional religion  is  losing  ground  constantly  in  its  struggle 
with  the  awakening  intellect  of  man.  It  is  either  rational 
religion  or  no  religion.  But  human  society  without  religion 
is  an  impossibility,  because  all  social  service,  from  common, 
useful  labor  to  the  most  exalted  sacrifice  for  the  race,  is 
always  compensated  for  by  religion,  beginning  with  a  pleas- 
ing exhilaration  and  ending  in  divine  ecstasy.  We  may  not 
call  the  emotion  religion;  but  so  long  as  the  human  race 
exists,  all  service  done  for  the  race  will  be  rewarded  with 
pleasure  and  life,  and  all  injuries  done  to  the  race  will  be 
repaid  with  pain  and  death. 

Religion  being  the  highest  form  of  internal  energy,  like  all 
internal  energy,  is  statical  in  its  function.  In  society  its 
chief  function  is  to  preserve  order,  and  it  accomplishes  it  by 


RELIGION  255 

uniformity  in  all  of  our  actions,  beliefs  and  institutions. 
Hence  the  ultra  religious  nations  are  stationary.  Religion, 
like  internal  energy  in  all  of  its  manifestations,  must  be  coor- 
dinated with  the  highest  form  of  external  energy,  the  social 
sense,  in  order  that  it  may  perform  its  function  perfectly ;  then 
the  social  organism  will  be  a  moving  equilibrium,  not  only 
capable  of  order,  but  certain  of  progress.  The  social  sense 
will  point  the  way,  and  religion  will  be  the  motor  power ;  and 
thus  the  ultimate  development  of  the  race  will  be  secured. 

V 

Primitive  man,  when  originating  institutions,  customs, 
laws  and  beliefs  to  stimulate  religion,  blindly  fell  upon  cus- 
toms, practices  and  beliefs  essentially  and  intrinsically  relig- 
ious; that  is,  race-serving,  race-producing,  race-perfecting. 
This  is  true  because  the  individual,  independent  of  all  social 
training,  is  a  social  unit,  and  he  differed  from  a  social  individ- 
ual to-day  only  in  that  he  realized  his  social  instincts  blindly, 
whereas  a  social  individual  to-day  realizes  his  social  instincts 
consciously,  according  to  the  social  sense.  Nature  consists 
of  systems  working  within  systems ;  the  social  working  within 
the  organic,  and  the  organic  working  within  the  inorganic ; 
and  there  is  no  greater  error  than  thinking  that  the 
individual  is  not  naturally  a  social  unit  because  he  is  sus- 
ceptible of  further  social  development.  There  is  a  blind  way 
of  doing  things,  and  a  conscious  way.  In  nature  the  blind 
way  developed  mind,  in  society  it  developed  the  social  sense; 
and  one  is  as  natural  as  the  other. 

The  unity  of  nature  secured  by  the  hypothesis  of  God  only 
adumbrates  the  perfection  of  the  unity  of  nature  which  the 
facts  will  some  day  establish ;  for,  despite  all  of  our  reasoning 
from  the  hypothesis  of  a  God,  man  has  never  been  able  to 
explain  how  an  omnipotent  God  could  let  the  devil  live,  or 
how  it  was  that  a  perfectly  pure  and  holy  God  could  be  the 
author  of  everything,  and  yet  not  be  the  author  of  evil. 


256       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

But  none  of  these  inevitable  contradictions  will  be  found  in 
the  naturalistic  explanations  of  things,  monism.  Every- 
thing in  the  universe  will  be  perfectly  organized.  The  inter- 
dependence of  the  inorganic,  the  organic,  and  society  will  bo 
given;  and  the  individual,  instead  of  referring  things  to  the 
mystery  of  God,  will  trace  them  to  their  natural  causes. 
Life  will  not  be  a  mystery,  but  a  science.  Society  will  not 
be  left  to  the  ignorance  and  error  of  the  individual,  but  will 
be  under  the  control  of  scientific  moral  and  social  senses. 
Man  will  look  out  upon  the  universe  and  know  just  what 
matter  and  energy  are  doing  there.  He  will  see  the  tendency 
of  processes  that  it  takes  billions  of  years  to  complete.  He 
will  look  into  the  hidden  recesses  of  the  chemical  compound 
and  see  there  a  world  similar  to  the  heavens  above.  He  will 
know  all  matter  by  being  matter  himself,  as  he  will  know  all 
energy  through  the  highest  manifestation  of  energy,  intel- 
lect. He  will  read  in  history  what  mankind  has  done,  and 
this  great  mass  of  knowledge  will  be  organized  under  nat- 
uralism into  a  consistent  story.  All  life  will  be  conscious. 
We  will  know  what  we  are,  and  what  everything  else  is,  in 
terms  of  our  own  being — the  only  way  we  can  know  anything. 
The  hypothesis  of  naturalism  will  explain  all  facts,  reduce 
every  phenomenon  to  law,  and  demonstrate  the  unity,  soli- 
darity, and  oneness  of  all  nature. 

The  one  function  that  has  been  heightened  by  religious 
ceremony  the  world  over  is  that  of  reproduction.  Many 
religious  customs  can  be  traced  to  phallism,  and  phallism 
was  religious  simply  because  by 'it  the  perpetuity  of  the  race 
was  secured.  Some  writers  trace  religion  as  a  whole  to 
this  ancient  and  almost  universal  cult ;  but  this  is  only  one 
phase  of  religion,  it  being  due  to  any  race-serving  conduct. 
That  marriage  to-day  is  regarded  as  a  divine  institution  is 
due  to  this  primeval  and  useful  religion. 

No  function  of  the  individual  has  been  more  essential  and 
imperative  than  the  serviency,  subordination,  and  devotion 


RELIGION  257 

of  the  individual  to  the  tribe  or  the  nation.  It  had  been 
inherited  from  the  lower  animals,  when  service  meant  noth- 
ing more  than  congregation  and  species  protection,  nothing 
more  than  being  hedged  in  by  members  of  one's  own  kind, 
and  thus  kept  from  being  a  victim  of  outside  enemies.  So 
nothing  was  more  natural  than  that  the  first  religion  should 
be.service  to  the  ruler  of  the  tribe,  and  when  dead  worship, 
for  such  conduct  is  of  incalculable  benefit  in  binding  the 
tribe  together;  something  primitive  man  could  not  accom- 
plish in  any  other  way.  The  hero  is  the  precursor  of  all  the 
gods.  If  any  natural  phenomena  were  deified,  they  were 
personified  and  took  their  position  in  the  pantheon  of  deified 
heroes.  Without  hero-worship  no  tribe  has  ever  been  able 
to  grow  into  a  great  nation ;  for  no  matter  how  large  the  con- 
federacy, if  the  hero  who  formed  it  did  not  deify  himself  and 
rule  when  dead,  it  did  not  persist.  This  was  the  chief  cause 
of  the  low  development  of  the  American  Indians  and  the 
high  development  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  The  worship 
of  God,  the  central  idea  of  all  religions,  was  but  misapplied 
devotion  to  the  tribe,  the  nation,  the  race,  binding  it 
together,  as  did  the  hero  when  alive.  This  is  why  the  wor- 
ship of  God  was  so  sacred.  Upon  it  primitive  society 
depended.  This  is  why  it  was  sacrilege  to  disobey  and  deride 
the  gods;  for  with  primitive  man  the  tribe  and  God  were 
inseparable:  the  destruction  of  God  was  the  destruction  of 
society.  And  modern  man's  insignificant  defense  of  omni- 
potent God  ceases  to  be  ridiculous  in  the  light  here  shed 
upon  this  great  belief;  it  is  helpless  humanity  that  he  is 
blindly  defending. 

Originally  religion  was  of  the  clan,  then  the  tribe,  then 
the  nation,  now  it  is  of  all  humanity.  The  power  external 
to  man,  to  which  he  is  bound,  upon  which  he  is  dependent, 
found  in  all  religions,  is  the  tribe,  the  race,  and  not  some 
supernatural  being.  Trace  all  the  names  of  the  gods  back 
to  their  origin  and  they  will  be  found  to  be  chiefs  and 


258       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

heroes.  The  word  "God"  itself  is  a  corruption  of  Wod,  an 
abbreviation  of  Woden.  (Another  example  of  the  inter- 
change of  G  and  W  is  in  Guilliam  and  "William.)  Alas,  that 
we  should  worship  Woden!  What  fortuitous  circumstances 
made  him  sovereign  God  in  the  struggle  for  existence  in  the 
great  pantheon  of  contending  deities?  The  shortness  of 
his  name?  Or  the  greatness  of  his  followers?  Or  did  he 
really  have  a  meritorious  life  back  of  him?  Was  he  a  hero 
greater  than  all  others?  Or  was  he  one  of  our  primitive 
saviors,  who  dimly  saw  the  ultimate  unity  of  the  race,  and 
boldly  proclaimed  that  there  could  be  nothing  but  unity  in 
the  universe?  Or  was  he  a  warrior  who  tried  by  force  of 
arms  to  unite  the  race  into  one  family  and  rule  over  it  dead 
as  alive?  Anyway,  whatever  may  be  the  truth,  it  is  certainly 
high  time  that  mankind  trace  the  emotion  of  religion  to 
its  true  genesis,  and  base  life  on  facts  instead  of  fiction, 
upon  the  natural  race  instead  of  a  supernatural  God. 

The  great  merit  of  the  Jewish  law-maker  Moses  (or  who- 
ever it  was  that  compiled  his  laws)  over  all  previous  religious 
law-makers,  was  his  making  six  of  his  ten  commandments 
base  religion  on  morality,  thus  making  it  possible  for  the 
ultimate  form  of  religion  to  be  based  exclusively  on  morality. 
And  the  teachings  of  the  Essenes,  embodied  in  the  teachings 
of  Jesus,  more  fully  placed  religion  in  its  true  relation  to 
morality  than  did  Judaism ;  but  we  do  not  find  religion  and 
morality  standing  in  their  true  relation  to  each  other  as 
cause  and  effect  until  Roman  stoicism  was  developed.  Here 
religion  and  morality  are  one ;  here  for  the  first  time  relig- 
ion is  based  on  a  system  of  morality.  Here  for  the  first  time, 
under  the  name  of  philosophy,  do  we  see  the  high  quality  of 
life  a  purely  naturalistic  system  of  religion  can  attain.  But 
not  until  to-day  has  there  been  offered  in  clear  and  succinct 
terms  the  true  theory  of  religion  based  on  scientific  morality. 

Religion  sustains  the  same  relation  to  morality  that  serv- 
ice to  one's  country  does  to  patriotism ;  the  same  as  love 


RELIGION  259 

does  to  sexual  association ;  as  love  of  offspring  does  to  the 
birth  and  care  of  offspring.  No  moral  act  is  ever  performed 
without  arousing  the  feeling  of  religion.  This  is  why  virtue 
is  its  own  reward.  Why  sacrifice  for  humanity  is  not  loss; 
a  man  saving  his  life  by  losing  it,  gaining  a  victory  by  sur- 
rendering all  to  humanity.  This  is  art  for  art's  sake.  This 
is  the  philosophy  of  doing  good  because  it  is  good.  Good  is 
good  because  of  society.  This  is  why  martyrdom  for  the  truth 
is  suffered  with  joy  and  gladness.  The  hand  that  is  lifted  to 
bless,  during  the  auto  dafe,  is  actuated  by  the  ecstasy  of 
religion  in  the  face  of  death.  This  is  why  such  a  simple  thing 
as  useful  labor  is  always  followed  with  intense  satisfaction. 
Why  idleness  produces  ennui  is  lack  of  religious  sanction  for 
one's  mode  of  life,  owing  to  its  uselessness.  Every  emotion 
is  due  to  the  things  that  inspire  it.  Religion  is  due  to  any 
and  all  acts  that  perpetuate,  protect  and  perfect  the  race,  no 
matter  how  remote  or  how  proximate. 

The  true  theoiy  of  religion  would  have  been  understood 
centuries  ago  but  for  the  allegorical  interpretation  standing 
in  the  way.  In  their  explanations,  instead  of  starting  with 
the  elements  and  energies  of  nature  and  tracing  religion  to 
its  finished  product  in  man,  philosophers  invariably  started 
with  the  finished  product,  deducing  it  from  Being,  Life,  Mind, 
God,  the  Absolute.  However  it  is  infinitely  more  difficult  to 
explain  the  blind  dissipation  of  energy  in  physical  inorganic 
nature,  the  struggle  for  existence  among  animals,  and  war  in 
human  society  by  the  hypothesis  of  an  omnipotent  super- 
natural God  than  it  is  to  start  with  the  elements  and  ener- 
gies of  nature,  and  show,  through  the  law  of  repetition  and 
the  law  of  natural  selection,  and  the  eternal  adjustment  and 
readjustment  of  energy,  how,  on  one  hand,  external  energies 
developed  into  intellect  and  morality,  and,  on  the  other, 
internal  energies  developed  into  the  emotions  and  religion. 
If  we  start  with  imperfect  nature,  all  perfection  can  be 
traced  and  accounted  for;  but  to  start  with  a  perfect  God 


260       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

with  omnipotent  power,  there  is  no  reason  why  things  should 
not  have  been  perfect  at  the  beginning,  and  there  is  no 
explanation  for  their  imperfection.  The  only  rational 
philosophy  is  naturalism. 

The  reason  marriage  is  so  sacred  is  because  humanity 
depends  on  it.  The  reason  property  is  so  sacred  is  because 
humanity  depends  on  it.  The  reason  law  is  so  sacred  is 
because  humanity  depends  on  it.  The  reason  God  is  so 
sacred  is  because  allegorically  humanity  depends  on  Him. 
The  reason  the  church  is  so  sacred  is  because  it  was  thought 
that  humanity  depended  upon  it  for  its  moral  and  social 
senses.  Humanity  does  not  depend  upon  God,  nor  upon  the 
church,  but  upon  the  most  economical  expenditure  of  human 
energy,  determined  by  the  moral  and  social  senses,  brought 
to  as  great  a  perfection  as  possible  through  scientific  train- 
ing and  education.  It  is  the  moral  and  social  senses  that 
are  sacred;  it  is  humanity  that  is  sacred.  At  last  humanity 
has  reached  a  condition  of  existence  in  which  it  is  sufficiently 
developed  to  stand  face  to  face  with  God;  that  is,  that  it 
can  understand  what  God  has  symbolized,  and  not  be 
shocked  into  retrogression  by  the  surprise,  but  glorified  in 
the  revelation.  At  last  man  sees  through  the  glass  of 
allegory,  not  darkly,  but  face  to  face  with  the  ultimate  facts 
of  nature,  human  existence,  human  destiny.  This  is  what 
all  nature  has  been  tending  to :  conscious  individual  exist- 
ence, followed  by  conscious  social  existence.  Man  achieved 
much  when  he  became  self-conscious.  How  much  more  will 
he  achieve  now  that  he  has  become  socially  conscious! 

VI 

Science  to-day  has  deemed  religion  an  excrescence  upon 
the  body  politic,  a  something  in  the  subsequent  development 
of  the  race  to  be  gotten  rid  of.  This  is  a  mistake.  Religion 
should  not  be,  and  cannot  be,  discarded  any  more  than  we 
can  discard  the  emotion  of  love;  but,  like  the  emotion  of 


RELIGION  261 

love,  it  should  be  based  on  facts — the  facts  of  morality,  and 
not  the  fictions  of  theology.  It  is  theology  and  superstition 
that  must  go.  Religion  is  just  as  permanent  an  emotion  as 
the  love  of  life,  as  it  is  a  higher  development  of  the  same 
emotion,  the  love  of  race.  As  no  animal  but  man  knows  the 
function  of  copulation,  and  few  of  mankind  realize  that  love 
is  an  instinct  to  perpetuate  the  individual,  so  not  until  now 
has  man  attempted  to  fathom  the  facts  of  religion  and 
determine  its  function.  The  thought-stopping  answers  of 
theology  have  stultified  man  in  his  investigations,  so  that  not 
until  to-day  has  he  seen  that  religion  is  an  instinct  beginning 
in  tribal  protection,  which  in  time  extended  to  the  nation, 
and  now  embraces  all  humanity. 

If  the  tribe  is  the  beginning  of  religion,  we  should  see 
manifestations  of  it  among  all  savages,  and  while  religion 
there  would  not  be  expected  to  be  highly  developed,  yet  it 
should  be  the  essential  life  of  the  tribe.  This  is  what  we  do 
find.  Savages  are  really  more  moral  than  civilized  people, 
that  is,  their  life  is  more  under  the  control  of  society;  but 
their  life  is  not  so  high  on  account  of  their  lack  of  social 
sense.  If  savages  knew  how  to  expend  their  energy  it  would 
be  expended  correctly.  The  trouble  is  they  do  not  know; 
hence  are  the  victims  of  ignorance  and  superstition.  They 
execute  the  ideals  they  have  far  better  than  we.  The 
trouble  with  civilization  is,  that  its  social  sense  (theology)  is 
not  in  harmony  with  its  moral  sense  (conscience,  duty,  and 
sympathy) .  A  moral  sense  created  under  the  training  and 
education  of  theology  does  not  work  with  the  social  sense  of 
science.  And  the  conflict  between  the  social  sense  of  science 
and  the  social  sense  of  theolgy  results  in  the  immorality  of 
the  individual.  If  the  individual  should  have  a  healthful 
moral  sense,  but  sees  the  absurdity  and  contradictions  of 
the  social  sense  of  theology,  he  does  not  hesitate  to  disobey 
it.  Hence  the  individual  really  has  no  reasoned  system  of 
thought  to-day;  he  rejects  theology,  but  has  nothing  to  take 


262       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

its  place.  He  lives  by  his  social  instincts  alone,  blindly, 
wastef  ully,  as  best  he  can.  The  race  is  really  in  a  deplorable 
condition.  All  fine  minds  feel  the  horror  of  the  present 
situation.  It  is  expressed  in  poetry,  in  art,  in  music,  in  the 
broken  cries  of  the  sympathetic.  The  race  will  inevitably 
have  a  positive,  verifiable,  scientific  philosophy  to  take  the 
place  of  theology.  The  hope  of  the  race  is  to  base  the 
moral  sense  on  a  scientific  social  sense.  We  know  how  to 
save  energy;  but,  owing  to  our  disbelief  in  theology,  we  do 
not  do  it.  We  act  contrary  to  theology,  and  know  it.  This 
condition  of  affairs  amongst  savages  is  unknown.  They 
always  live  up  to  their  light.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  sin 
amongst  them.  They  all  do  what  they  believe  to  be  right. 
The  trouble  with  them  is  that  their  knowledge  (social  sense) 
is  ignorance,  error,  superstition  and  prejudice,  fiction  and 
fancy,  and,  as  a  result,  let  them  be  controlled  perfectly  by 
the  tribe ;  yet  they  live  a  low  life  and  accomplish  nothing. 

The  savage,  too,  is  more  religious  than  civilized  man ;  but 
owing  to  deficiency  in  moral  and  social  sense,  his  religion  is 
produced  by  the  most  absurd  beliefs,  the  grossest  conduct, 
as  well  as  the  most  inhuman  ceremonies.  It  is  difficult  to 
develop  properly  man's  moral  sense  since  the  clan  has  been 
supplanted  by  the  tribe,  the  nation,  the  city,  the  state. 
Religion  is  not  as  definite  an  instinct  now,  since  the  tribe 
has  grown  into  the  state,  as  formerly.  But,  roughly  speak- 
ing, to-day  the  family,  the  school,  the  community  take  the 
place  of  the  tribe  in  developing  the  moral  sense,  and  act  as 
a  stimulus  for  religion.  But  man's  life,  with  his  widened 
social  sense,  has  lost  much  of  its  intensity,  and  the  civilized 
man  does  not  live  that  thrilling,  real  social  life  which  his  tribal 
ancestor  lived  when  every  act  and  thought  was  determined  by 
his  tribe.  In  becoming  an  individual  man  has  become  less 
human,  in  order,  in  the  end,  to  use  his  individuality  to  be- 
come more  human ;  for  the  time  will  come  when  the  whole  race 
will  be  to  the  individual,  through  sympathy  and  imagination, 


RELIGION  263 

what  the  tribe  was  to  his  savage  ancestor ;  and  religion  will  be 
stimulated  by  morality  as  fully  as  it  was  previously  by  serv- 
ice to  the  tribe.  Man  will  analyze  all  his  emotions,  trace 
them  back  to  their  origin,  and  then  consciously  develop 
them,  guided  by  the  principles  of  science,  and  thus  will  ulti- 
mately reach  that  perfect  expenditure  of  energy  prophesied 
in  all  the  sacred  books  of  the  race. 

VII 

The  naturalistic  conception  of  religion  causes  us  to  see  it 
under  many  guises,  detect  it  under  innumerable  forms.  An 
emotion  is  what  it  is  from  the  function  it  performs,  and  not 
from  the  name  man  has  seen  fit  to  call  it.  This  is  so  of 
everything.  And  there  is  no  greater  source  of  error  in  think- 
ing than  that  of  considering  things  alike  because  they  are 
named  alike,  regardless  of  their  functions.  Philosophy  deals 
with  facts,  not  names,  and  it  discovers  the  relationship 
among  things  of  the  most  diverse  classification.  Philosophy 
looks  at  nature  as  it  is  and  reasons  about  the  phenomena, 
not  about  man's  classifications  of  them. 

War  is  stimulated  by  misdirected  religion.  The  tribe,  the 
community,  the  nation  is  in  danger,  is  attacked.  Every 
individual  becomes  a  hero.  The  individual  life  is  lost  sight 
of  in  the  great  life  of  the  nation.  Instantly  is  aroused  the 
powerful  emotion  of  religion,  the  desire  to  protect  the  tribe, 
the  nation,  at  any  cost.  At  the  cry  of  war  a  tribe,  a  nation 
madly  resists  all  attack  and  experiences  the  fiercest  glow  of 
joy,  glory  at  its  success — religion.  The  individual  life  is 
sacrificed  as  if  worthless  so  the  tribe,  the  nation  is  saved. 
Nothing  but  the  instinct  of  religion  could  make  a  man  so 
oblivious  to  death,  so  eager  to  die  that  his  tribe,  his  nation 
may  live.  How  heroism  inspires  us !  Who  is  so  hated,  so  de- 
spised, so  abhorred  as  a  coward  on  the  field  of  battle?  What 
thrills  us  more  than  patriotism — the  Greeks  under  Leon- 
idas  at  Thermopylae,  Horatius  at  the  bridge,  Regulus  return- 


264      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

ing  to  the  Carthaginians?  The  gods  who  have  succeeded  with 
men  have  been  gods  of  war.  And  it  is  the  same  to-day.  See 
how  frenzied  the  United  States  became  at  the  approach  of 
war  with  Spain?  The  same  is  true  of  England  in  her  con- 
flict with  the  Boers.  This  great  instinct  of  religion  carried 
us  all  away,  and  we  acted  as  blindly  as  so  many  savages. 

While  the  horror  of  war  is  described  as  hell,  yet,  as  with 
child-birth  pain,  its  function  is  so  great,  it  is  soon  forgotten. 
There  is  no  horror  in  religious  sacrifice,  and  the  victims  of 
war  are  immolated  on  the  altar  of  their  country.  Without 
religion  to  sanction  it,  war  would  cease  to  be  at  once.  And 
when  it  is  understood  that  back  of  war  is  the  blind  instinct 
to  defend  the  tribe,  then  protection  will  be  sought  through 
intelligence,  not  force  or  blind  conflict.  But  the  religion  of 
war  being  blind,  it  defeats  to-day  the  very  object  its  func- 
tion is  to  perform,  that  of  protecting  the  tribe,  the  nation, 
the  race.  It  was  well  enough  to  defend  the  tribe  from  out- 
side attack.  It  even  developed  the  nation;  but  the  race 
will  be  made  into  one  organization  by  the  force  of  intelligence 
and  not  by  force  of  arms.  War,  instead  of  promoting  racial 
unification  to-day,  defeats  it.  War  is  another  example  of  a 
good  thing  outlasting  its  usefulness  and  defeating  its  original 
function.  Imperialism  will  conquer  the  world;  not  the 
imperialism  of  war,  but  of  ideas,  knowledge,  science.  Peace 
is  the  gospel  of  religion  to-day,  not  war ;  and  he  is  the  true 
hero  to-day  who  decries  war,  not  he  who  dies  on  the  battle- 
field in  a  futile  and  foolish  waste  of  human  energy. 

What  has  been  accomplished  through  war  is  another 
example  of  nature  not  being  choice  in  its  means,  for  the 
primal  object  of  war  is  destruction;  yet  it  is  to  war  that  we 
owe  the  development  of  the  tribe,  the  nation,  the  confedera- 
tion. But  war  has  done  all  it  can  do.  It  will  be  through 
knowledge  and  peace  that  the  nations  of  the  earth  will  unite 
into  a  confederation  comprising  the  race.  As  enlightened 
as  the  individual  is  to-day,  it  appears  to  be  almost  impossible 


RELIGION  265 

to  believe  that,  for  the  sake  of  the  ruling  classes,  he  would 
go  out  and  be  shot  down ;  but  the  instinct  of  religion,  like 
all  instincts,  acts  blindly,  fatally.  It  is  a  sad  commentary  on 
the  intelligence,  the  morality  of  the  twentieth  century,  that 
it  cannot  effect  a  social  organization  except  by  war,  going 
back  to  the  instincts  of  the  savage.  Here  is  where  indi- 
vidualism ought  to  assert  itself,  and  the  common  man  should 
tell  the  class-rulers:  "If  you  want  battles  fought,  fight  them 
yourselves,  for  the  differences  between  the  governments  of 
contending  nations  to-day  are  not  worth  fighting  for,  let  alone 
dying  for.  I  am  for  peace/  I  am  for  the  race." 

In  the  day  of  the  tribe  war  was  sacred,  essential,  for  the 
tribe  not  only  waged  war  against  men,  but  nature  and  the 
beasts  of  the  field.  It  stimulated  religion,  and  was  the  most 
essential  thing  to  human  existence.  It  was  through  the 
struggle  for  existence  between  tribe  and  tribe  that  the 
irreligious  tribe  was  weeded  out,  and  tribes  developed  that 
became  social  organisms  with  mutually  dependent  parts. 
It  was  by  this  circuitous  route  that  the  humanity  of  to-day 
has  been  evolved ;  through  the  hardships  of  war  indirectly  our 
tender  loving-kindness  has  been  developed.  But  war  now, 
instead  of  performing  its  original  function  of  saving  the 
race,  is  the  chief  cause  of  its  degeneracy  and  destruction. 

In  an  age  of  international  economic  dependence  and  inter- 
dependence, war  is  racial  suicide.  If  we  could  abolish  the 
various  tariff  laws  that  still  prohibit  the  perfect  commercial 
organization  of  the  race  as  a  whole  from  an  economical  point 
of  view,  if  we  could  have  ten  years  of  free  trade,  war  after 
that  would  be  an  impossibility,  a  nightmare  of  the  past, 
relegated  to  oblivion  with  the  plague,  slavery,  superstition, 
and  cannibalism,  its  close  kinsmen. 

The  cosmopolitanization  of  capital  will  be  the  final  death 
blow  to  war.  The  true  conception  of  religion  will  destroy 
patriotism.  With  the  economic  dependence  of  one  nation 
upon  another,  with  the  socialization  of  life,  war  will  finally 


266      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

cease  to  exist.  To-day  it  is  fostered  by  effete  monarchs  and 
emperors,  and  jingo  presidents  whom  chance  has  given 
office,  by  the  immoral  greed  for  commercial  supremacy  of 
various  nations,  by  our  materialistic  conception  of  life,  by 
our  having  no  moral  or  social  education  except  what  we 
accidentally  pick  up,  and  by  the  individualistic  philosophy, 
which,  in  emancipating  the  individual  from  the  tribe,  puts 
him  without  the  pales  of  the  race  itself,  making  his  life  that 
of  criminal  aggression  controlled  only  by  force  of  arms. 


Under  our  hypocritical  theology  modern  man  is  a  godless 
monster,  yet  capable  of  being  controlled  only  by  a  God. 
The  individual  has  reached  the  acme  of  intellectuality,  but 
owing  to  a  lack  of  social  sense,  a  religion  based  on  morality, 
he  is  unable  to  combine,  cooperate  and  organize.  He  is  a 
great  unit;  but,  from  lack  of  social  and  moral  qualities,  he  is 
incapable  of  forming  a  great  humanity.  Xature,  when  it 
abandoned  tribal  control  in  order  to  create  property,  in 
order  to  work  by  the  individualistic  method  of  egoism 
instead  of  the  altruistic  method  of  sociocracy,  because  the 
individual  was  not  sufficiently  social  to  so  act,  entered  upon  the 
circuitous  plan  of  developing  society  by  sheer  individualism; 
and  now  to-day,  when  individualism  has  done  all  it  can  do, 
nature  will  take  up  again  social  development  by  racial  means 
where  it  left  off  on  account  of  being  unable  to  so  act  with 
primitive  man. 

Before  an  ideal  civilization  can  be  reached,  the  world 
socialized,  the  individual  must  again  become  moral,  that  is, 
responsible  to  the  race  as  his  primitive  ancestor  was ;  must 
make  the  welfare  of  the  race  the  dominant  motive  in  all  of  his 
actions.  Man  is  no  more  an  independent  individual  than  one 
of  the  constitutional  units  of  his  body  is  an  independent  unit ; 
and  to  realize  his  highest  life  he  must  be  in  a  social  organism, 
performing  his  true  functions  the  same  as  the  constitutional 


RELIGION  267 

unit  in  his  body  must  be  in  an  organism  performing  its 
functions.  No  wonder  the  unhappiness  of  to-day!  The 
mental  uncertainty,  the  harassing  doubt,  the  prevalent 
moral  cowardice,  the  intellectual  anarchy,  the  chaos  of  all 
knowledge!  The  guilded  misery,  the  ennui,  the  disease, 
the  squalid  poverty,  the  insanity,  the  suicides !  No  animal  is 
so  unhappy  as  man,  because  his  instincts,  his  emotions  are  so 
complicated,  his  intelligence  so  limited  that  he  is  incapable  of 
performing  his  proper  functions.  Savages  with  all  their 
dire  ignorance,  superstition,  and  want  are  little  worse  off 
than  we.  The  poor  to-day,  with  their  hunger,  dirt  and  dis- 
ease, are  as  happy  as  the  pampered  rich  with  their  ennui, 
idleness  and  pusillanimity.  It  all  will  be  arranged  accord- 
ing to  intelligence  when  men  see  the  tendency  of  things  and 
stop  acting  blindly ;  see  that  it  is  just  as  impossible  for  the 
individual  to  be  happy  in  a  miserable  social  organism  as  it  is 
for  one  constitutional  unit  of  the  body  to  be  happy  in  a 
miserable  animal  organism.  Let  individualism  recalcitrate 
as  it  will,  the  weal  and  woe  of  all  is  the  weal  and  woe  of 
every  one.  There  is  no  escaping  the  pains  and  miseries  of 
the  race.  They  penetrate  into  the  palace,  enter  into  the 
mart  and  the  clearing-house.  The  interdependence  of  all  is 
the  greatest  truth ;  and  the  only  way  to  live  is  to  live  for  all, 
and  thus,  by  losing  our  individual  life  in  the  greater  life  of 
humanity,  we  find  the  greatest  life  we  are  competent  to  live. 
The  old  life — to  live  for  the  tribe,  the  community,  the  nation, 
humanity — is  the  true  life;  then  happiness  will  dawn  upon 
us  as  a  reaction  from  our  previous  conduct,  and  we  will  be 
intensely  satisfied.  This  is  religion. 

The  time  has  come  when  we  must  discard  the  symbolical 
conception  of  things.  The  race  must  base  its  institutions 
on  facts,  not  shadowy  symbols  of  the  facts.  Our  institu- 
tions must  be  traced  to  their  source  and  consciously  pro- 
duced, founded.  No  longer  can  we  trust  to  the  haphazard 
development  of  the  contending  energies.  We  must  know 


268       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

what  we  want  in  institutions  and  realize  them.  Every 
emotion  should  be  studied  and  its  stimuli  determined.  The 
race  must  live  consciously,  or  it  will  cease  to  live  at  all.  No 
longer  can  we  trust  to  any  other  help  than  human  help ;  all 
other  help,  or  pseudo-help,  but  weakens  the  race  instead  of 
strengthening  it.  Such  truth  as  this  may  come  with  a 
shock,  but,  by  heroically  contemplating  it,  that  which  at  first 
repelled  will  in  time  attract,  then  be  loved,  and  finally  be 
obeyed.  If  the  race  is  ever  to  know  its  situation  here  on 
earth,  now  is  the  time.  Let  us  speak  the  truth. 

IX 

Just  as  the  sovereignty  of  the  state  has  been  found  to  be 
not  from  God ;  that  kings  reign  not  by  divine  right,  but  by 
the  consent  of  the  people ;  that  the  people  are  sovereign ; 
that,  as  government  is  of  the  people,  by  the  people  and  for 
the  people,  so  is  religion  of  the  people,  by  the  people  and 
for  the  people.  It  grows  out  of  the  race,  is  fostered  by  the 
race,  and  protects  and  perfects  the  race.  This  is  the  func- 
tion of  religion.  The  state  is  but  one  of  its  manifestations. 
The  church  is  another.  And  the  school  will  be  another. 
No  tribe  or  nation  ever  amounted  to  anything  that  did  not 
have  the  ability  to  develop  a  system  of  religious  beliefs  and 
ceremonies;  and  the  greatest  beliefs  in  all  past  religions  is 
a  belief  in  a  supernatural  God.  A  godless  tribe  never 
amounted  to  anything.  But  now  that  humanity  knows  the 
facts,  it  is  the  part  of  wisdom,  it  is  necessary,  to  have  the 
organic  continuity  of  the  race,  the  facts  of  human  existence, 
perform  their  natural  function  of  unifying  the  race  and  for- 
ever discard  all  symbolical  fictions,  gods  and  immortality.  In 
fact,  this  must  be  done,  for  the  ruling  classes  of  humanity 
know  that  there  is  no  God,  and  if  we  trust  to  Him  to  pro- 
tect us  we  will  go  unprotected ;.  for  strong  individuals,  cor- 
porations and  classes,  not  believing  in  God  and  not  having 
the  moral  and  social  senses  developed,  will  apply  the  primi- 


RELIGION  269 

tive  method  of  expending  energy ;  that  is,  turning  it  to  indi- 
vidual and  class  advantage  and  using  the  race  as  a  whole  for 
their  own  benefit.  This  is  what  is  happening  to-day.  God 
and  all  the  theological  machinery  is  perfectly  impotent  to 
stop  it.  What  would  any  of  the  great  individuals,  corpora- 
tions and  classes  which  are  using  the  machinery  of  society 
the  world  over  for  their  own  advantage  and  benefit,  care  for 
being  excommunicated?  But  could  it  be  done?  Certainly 
not.  These  traitors  to  the  race  own  and  run  the  church, 
and  how  could  it  excommunicate  them?  Governments  are 
very  much  in  the  same  condition,  only  there  are  millions  of 
good  people  everywhere  that  are  waiting  for  the  true  theory 
of  things,  to-day  as  in  the  days  of  Jesus ;  and  when  they  get 
the  light,  the  good  work  of  turning  the  machinery  of  society 
to  the  benefit  of  all  will  be  begun.  "We  must  speak  the  truth 
and  live  by  it;  show  that  the  facts  of  human  association 
have  created  the  moral  and  social  senses ;  that  they  are  the 
primal  basis  of  society,  and  not  some  imaginary  God  who 
cannot  be  found  in  all  the  universe,  or  even  proved  to 
exist;  that  it  is  by  the  development  of  the  moral  and 
social  senses  that  humanity  will  be  saved,  perfected,  social- 
ized; that  religion  will  be  the  reacting  emotion  from  the 
application  of  the  moral  and  social  senses  to  the  ameliora- 
tion of  the  ills  of  humanity,  and  to  its  subsequent  develop- 
ment and  perfection ;  that  if  the  race  cannot  be  developed 
by  the  moral  and  social  senses  with  religion  as  the  motor 
power,  then  the  end  is  only  a  question  of  a  very  short  time. 
It  is  an  exhilarating  thought  to  know  that  humanity  is 
self-sufficing;  that  the  race  is  not  dependent  upon  -some 
capricious  God  who  cannot  be  found  when  wanted,  who 
made  us  for  His  pleasure  and  takes  delight  in  tantalizing  us ; 
or  some  benevolent  but  impotent  deity  who  lets  his  rival 
Satan  amuse  himself  by  tempting  us  to  eternal  perdition. 
It  is  a  delight  to  know  that  religion  is  not  due  to  sacrifice  to 
an  idol,  or  to  an  imaginary  God ;  but  is  due  to  service  to 


270       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

humanity,  to  the  human  beings  about  us,  and  extending 
from  them  to  the  whole  race  in  proportion  to  our  own  great- 
ness ;  that  the  race  is  the  source  of  all  of  our  inspiration  to 
work,  to  hope,  to  love,  to  aspire,  to  think,  and  to  live. 
What  a  joy  to  know  that  society  is  the  author  and  perfecter 
of  our  being ;  that  at  last  we  know  what  God  is,  and  that 
the  race  is  not  God  in  the  old  barbaric  sense,  but,  instead, 
the  organism  of  which  we  are  both  the  whole  and  the  part, 
thus  living  a  double  life — the  physical  individual  and 
the  psychical  social  organism,  receiving  all  the  joys  there  are 
from  each,  and  reaching  in  our  life  the  acme  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  elements  and  energies  of  nature.  At  last  the 
individual  lias  found  an  object  in  the  race  worthy  of  his  sacri- 
fices, worthy  of  his  passion,  worthy  of  his  thought,  worthy  of 
his  work,  worthy  of  living  for  and  dying  for.  "We  know  that 
society  is  an  organism  which  will  meet  the  individual  as  a 
correlate  in  all  of  his  needs  of  a  higher  and  deeper  life,  a 
finer  and  purer  existence ;  that  henceforth  his  prayers  will  be 
heard  and  his  sacrifices  be  appreciated  and  accomplish  some- 
thing ;  that  at  last  religion  has  a  meaning,  a  definite  func- 
tion; that  morality  and  religion  are  cause  and  effect,  and 
that,  finally,  the  social  organism,  symbolized  throughout  all 
history  as  God,  has  begun  to  act  for  itself,  and  the  individual 
no  longer  sees  through  a  glass  darkly  but  lives  in  the  white 
light  of  conscious  existence. 

All  prayers,  all  songs,  all  poems,  all  literature,  all  music, 
all  art,  all  service  should  be  inspired  by  humanity  and 
directed  to  humanity.  The  literature  of  antiquity  was  about 
gods ;  the  literature  of  to-day  should  be  about  men.  The  great 
poet  will  be  he  who  shall  comprehend  the  monistic  conception 
of  nature,  life,  mind  and  society  in  the  universe,  and  express 
it  in  artistic  language;  mrt  the  fall  of  man,  nor  paradise  lost, 
but  the  orientation  of  man,  the  socialization  of  the  race. 
The  great  novel  will  be  the  epic  of  humanity,  the  coming 
sociocracy. 


RELIGION  271 

Science  should  be  studied  with  the  one  aim  of  seeing  how 
the  energies  of  nature,  the  individual,  and  society  can  best 
expend  themselves  in  the  most  economic  manner  possible  in 
order  to  enable  the  individual  to  see  through  nature  the 
individual  life  and  mind  and  the  social  organization  the 
same  as  one  with  a  technical  education  sees  through  an  art 
product,  sees  how  all  effects  are  attained  and  how  further 
improvements  can  be  made.  When  the  methods  of  nature  in 
expending  its  energies  in  its  three  forms  (inorganic,  organic 
and  social)  are  known,  society  through  the  social  sense  will 
introduce  the  same  beauty  into  civilization  that  it  has  intro- 
duced into  the  fine  arts ;  the  same  utility  into  civilization 
that  we  see  in  the  useful  arts.  Then  religion,  instead  of 
being  a  blind  instinct  or  a  sporadic  emotion  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  will  o'  wisp  of  ignorance  and  error,  will  be  a  defi- 
nitely understood  emotion  of  the  individual,  resulting  from 
service  in  developing,  protecting  and  perfecting  the  race, 
and  scientific  morality  will  be  the  motive  of  all  progress,  as 
science  will  be  the  way,  the  method ;  and  the  resulting  civil- 
ization will  be  a  moving  equilibrium,  the  perfect  social 
organism,  the  summum  bonum  of  humanity. 


CHAPTEE   XIV 

THE   SOCIAL   ORGANISM. 


IVith  certain  knowledge  that  the  solar  system  is  an  organ- 
ism, with  equally  certain  knowledge  that  the  whole  universe 
is  an  organism,  with  perfect  knowledge  of  the  organization 
of  inorganic  chemical  compounds  here  on  earth,  with  no  dis- 
pute whatever  that  plants  and  animals  are  not  organisms,  it 
seems  strange  that  every  one  should  not  see  that  one  of  the 
most  prominent  characteristics  of  matter  and  energy  in  all 
their  forms  is  that  of  organization,  and  the  greatest  anomaly 
would  be  to  see  it  absent  in  human  society — the  highest  mani- 
festation of  matter  and  energy  that  we  know  anything  about. 
In  the  face  of  this  seeming  certainty,  one  school  of  sociolo- 
gists maintains  that  society  is  not  an  organism  at  all,  and 
no  school  commits  itself  perfectly  in  regard  to  this  funda- 
mental theory  of  sociology.  There  is  much  discussion 
among  sociologists  as  to  the  exact  nature  of  the  social  organ- 
ism, some  taking  the  position  that  there  is  no  organism  at 
all;  others  that  it  is  an  organism  similar  to  the  animal 
organism;  still  others  that  it  is  not  a  physical,  nor  a 
biological  organism,  but  a  psychical  organism,  and  that 
psychology  is  the  basic  science  of  sociology. 

One  is  almost  tempted  to  think  that  such  capriciousness 
among  scientists  is  due  to  a  desire  to  be  original  rather 
than  to  express  the  facts  in  the  case.  There  is  such  per- 
versity found  amongst  the  greatest  thinkers;  witness  the 
attitude  of  Schopenhauer  towards  Hegel,  and  Spencer 
towards  Comte.  As  most  of  what  the  race  hands  down  to 

272 


THE    SOCIAL   ORGANISM  273 

us — language,  art,  science,  government,  industry — nas  no 
stamp  of  individuality  upon  it,  it  is  well  not  to  be  so  careful 
about  thinking  original  thoughts  as  having  one's  thought 
capable  of  verification  in  nature  and  society,  no  matter  who 
originates  it. 

When  scientists  say  there  is  no  social  organism,  they 
mean  is  that  there  is  no  conscious  social  organism ;  and  this 
is  true.  Just  as  man  before  he  became  self-conscious  could 
not  have  been  said  to  be  really  an  animal  organism,  because 
his  organism  was  run  blindly  by  instincts  and  stimuli ;  so  the 
social  organism  to-day  is  run  blindly  and  instinctively  by 
stimuli,  and  is  in  a  stage  of  development  similar  to  that  of 
animals  that  have  not  reached  self-consciousness.  They  do 
nothing  with  any  purpose,  live  haphazard,  blindly  dissipating 
their  energies  according  to  external  stimuli.  Society  lives 
similarly  to-day.  It  performs  its  functions  blindly.  Most 
human  energy  is  wasted  in  opposition  and  neutralization. 
But  as  the  energies  of  nature  developed  the  senses  and  the 
intellect  in  man,  so  the  blind  dissipation  of  the  energies  of 
imdividuals  in  society  develop  the  moral  and  social  senses ; 
and  as  the  function  of  the  intellect  is  to  guide  the  animal 
organism  to  perfect  expenditure  of  energy,  perfect  organiza- 
tion, so  the  function  of  the  moral  and  social  senses  is  to 
guide  the  social  organism  to  perfect  expenditure  of  energy, 
perfect  organization,  and  whenever  this  is  realized  society 
will  be  a  perfect  organism ;  and  as  the  blind  expenditure  of 
energy  in  nature  ends  in  a  self-conscious  individual  organism, 
so  will  the  blind  expenditure  of  energy  in  society  end  in  a 
social-conscious  social  organism. 

The  concept  of  a  social  organism  is  one  destined  to  be 
accepted  more  and  more  as  time  goes  on;  but  as  to  the  kind 
of  organism  we  have  to-day  that  is  yet  to  be  determined,  not 
by  a  study  of  biology  or  psychology,  but  by  a  study  of  all  the 
sciences;  for  we  have  seen  in  our  investigation  that  the 
expenditure  of  energy  in  society  is  no  exception  to  the  expen- 


274       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

diture  of  physical  energy  in  nature,  or  the  expenditure  of 
energy  in  the  animal  organism ;  energy  always  follows  the 
line  of  the  least  resistance,  determined  by  the  conditions  in 
each  particular  case.  Society's  possibilities,  its  practic- 
abilities in  the  expenditure  of  energy  are  yet  to  be  seen. 

Society  is  certainly  an  organism,  and  in  time  it  will  com- 
prise the  whole  race ;  but  it  is  in  such  a  nascent  form  to-day 
that  its  organization  is  very  imperfect.  Society  to-day  is 
bound  together  by  feelings  and  beliefs  much  more  than 
by  economic  considerations.  Most  nations  go  to  pieces,  not 
from  lack  of  physical  subsistence  or  lack  of  organization,  but 
because  of  lack  of  harmony  among  their  beliefs  and  feelings. 
Greece  was  intact  so  long  as  the  Grecian  mythology  made 
the  colonies  and  the  mother  country  one.  It  was  a  matter  of 
belief  that  separated  England  and  the  United  States.  It  is 
due  to  its  beliefs  that  China  has  been  preserved  from 
destruction  for  thousands  of  years.  How  long  would  Tur- 
key remain  one  nation  but  for  its  religion?  Would  Western 
Europe  have  ever  been  Western  Europe  but  for  Catholicism? 
But  nations  have  an  additional  factor  to  hold  them  in  a 
social  organism,  that  of  economic  dependence.  -It  will  be 
a  community  of  feeling,  belief  and  knowledge,  coupled  with 
interdependent  economic  conditions  that  will  unify  the  race 
into  one  organism,  directing  all  the  energy  of  the  different 
nations  into  the  most  economic  channels  possible,  and 
thereby  be  the  greatest  protection  to  property  and  the  great- 
est security  to  life.  The  tendency  of  socialization  is  in  this 
direction,  and  its  realization  is  but  a  question  of  time. 
There  is  no  doubt  but  economic  considerations,  the  cosmo- 
politanization  of  capital,  will  cause  the  end  of  all  war  and 
petty  nationalities,  will  utterly  destroy  all  the  restrictive 
theories  of  government;  but  a  unity  of  belief,  knowledge, 
will  be  back  of  it  all.  Nations,  as  well  as  men — even  more 
so  than  men — are  amenable  to  morality,  and  the  motor  power 
of  all  morality  being  religion,  hence  the  social  organism  is 


THE    SOCIAL    ORGAXISM  275 

primarily  held  together  by  feelings  and  emotions,  the  chief 
being  religion.  It  is  true  we  must  all  more  or  less  think 
alike,  must  have  the  same  theory  of  things ;  unity  of  thought 
has  always  been  the  greatest  stimulus  to  religion  (the  greatest 
example  heretofore  being  a  belief  in  one  God) ,  a  theory  of  life 
which  the  monistic  conception  of  things,  when  it  becomes  uni- 
versal, will  absolutely  demonstrate.  It  is  as  impossible  for 
civilized  people  to  live  apart,  not  to  exchange  mutual  services, 
as  for  the  individual  to  be  civilized  and  live  away  from  his 
fellows.  All  of  the  nations  of  western  civilization  are 
psychically  one  people  now;  they  are  upon  the  verge  of 
perfect  economic  dependence.  The  tendency  is  to  make 
western  civilization  one  vast  social  organism,  the  precursor 
of  the  whole  race  as  a  social  organism. 

II. 

The  analogy  between  the  animal  organism  and  the  social 
organism  is  imperfect,  because  the  animal  organism  for  com- 
parison must  be  taken  from  a  family  of  animals  far  down  in 
the  scale  of  development.  The  social  organism  to-day  is  in 
a  stage  of  development  similar  to  that  of  an  animal  with  a 
sense  of  touch  fully  developed,  but  with  the  other  senses 
only  nascently  developed.  Some  object  at  a  distance  comes 
between  such  an  organism  and  the  light,  and,  as  the  shut- 
ting out  of  the  light  is  us-ually  followed  by  an  injury  to  the 
organism,  the  animal  feels  the  absence  of  light  and  the 
accompanying  hurt,  and  registers  it  in  its  organism;  but  not 
having  any  eyes,  does  not  see  the  object  that  causes  the 
injury.  By  taking  advantage  of  the  energy  of  light,  shadows 
and  images  that  are  reflected  into  its  protoplasm  through 
the  law  of  external  repetition,  the  animal  in  ages  of  time 
unconsciously  develops  an  eye  whereby  it  can  see  the  object 
that  causes  its  injury.  So  to-day  the  social  organism  little 
more  than  feels  its  injuries  by  the  moral  sense,  and,  owing  to 
the  imperfect  condition  of  the  social  sense  (knowledge),  it 


276      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

does  not  see  their  cause  and  does  not  know  how  to  direct 
human  energy  so  as  to  avoid  injury.  But  just  as  the  reflec- 
tion of  light  on  the  tissues  of  the  animal  organism,  through 
the  law  of  external  repetition,  developed  and  perfected  a 
sense  of  sight  during  ages  of  time,  so  the  distribution  of 
knowledge  in  society,  through  the  same  law  of  repetition, 
will  develop  and  perfect  a  social  sense  by  that  conflict  in  the 
expenditure  of  feelings  and  emotions  which  results  in 
creating  in  individuals  a  sense  whereby  they  can  know  society 
and  their  relation  to  it ;  know  its  conditions,  its  functions, 
its  destiny. 

Individual  experience  with  society  communicated  from 
individual  to  individual  by  language  develops  in  each 
a  consciousness  of  the  condition  of  the  social  organ- 
ism as  a  whole.  When  a  social  imperfection  is  seen  by  any 
individual  and  its  cause  determined,  and  the  individual 
is  able  to  communicate  his  knowledge  to  society,  the  imper- 
fection will  be  remedied  through  the  motor  apparatus  of  the 
social  organism,  now  also  in  its  infancy,  and  the  right 
expenditure  of  energy  will  follow,  guided  by  social  con- 
sciousness, or  knowledge,  and  the  highest  civilization  pos- 
sible be  attained;  the  same  as  in  the  animal  organism  when 
some  individual  tissue  is  injured,  it  communicates  its  feel- 
ings to  the  organism  as  a  whole,  and  a  proper  avenue  of 
expending  energy  is  furnished  by  the  intellect  of  the  animal, 
and  the  injury  is  remedied  or  avoided  by  the  organism  as  a 
whole.  The  function  of  the  social  sense  is  to  direct  the 
opposing,  the  neutralizing  and  wasting  energies,  the  feelings 
and  emotions  of  individuals,  by  turning  them  to  one  pur- 
pose— the  betterment  of  society  through  knowledge.  The 
social  sense  distributes  knowledge  of  all  kinds  throughout 
society,  so  that  society  through  knowledge  can  direct  the 
energies  of  the  individuals  into  the  most  economic  channels 
possible  and  direct  its  own  organic  actions  by  knowledge  as 
well  as  feeling,  making  of  the  social  organism  a  conscious 


THE  SOCIAL  OIJGANISM  277 

entity  resulting  from  all  the  energies  of  all  the  individuals, 
as  the  individual  is  a  conscious  entity  resulting  from  all  the 
energies  of  nature.  This  is  the  third  great  controlment; 
society  as  an  organism  directing  and  controlling  the  actions 
of  its  units,  and  its  own  actions  by  verifiable  public,  cor- 
porate knowledge.  It  is  a  sixth  law  of  motion,  and  the 
supreme  law  of  ethics  of  the  coming  humanity. 

There  is  one  radical  difference  between  the  social  organism 
and  the  animal  organism,  that  is,  the  directing  power.  The 
sovereignty  of  the  organism  in  the  case  of  the  animal  is 
centralized  in  the  ego  of  the  organism ;  while  in  the  case  of 
society  it  is  in  the  individual  units — the  individuals — but 
bound  together  by  feeling,  sympathy,  religion.  The  units 
of  the  animal  organism  are  unintelligent,  while  the  units  of 
the  social  organism  alone  are  intelligent.  The  animal  is 
controlled  by  the  centralized  intellect  and  ego,  the  ego  fur- 
nishing the  motor  power,  the  intellect  guiding  it;  society  is 
controlled  by  knowledge  and  religion — religion  binding 
society  together  and  furnishing  the  motor  power,  knowledge 
directing  it  to  racial  welfare.  The  more  centralized  the 
intelligence  of  the  animal,  the  higher  its  superiority;  the 
more  dispersed  the  intelligence  of  the  social  organism, 
the  higher  the  civilization,  until  perfect  dispersion  is 
reached,  when  we  will  have  universal  democratization  and 
socialization  of  the  race.  The  more  specialized  the  units 
of  the  animal  organism  the  more  highly  developed  the 
organism.  The  less  specialized  the  units  of  the  social 
organism  the  higher  the  organization.  The  object  of 
all  the  laws  of  the  animal  organization  is  the  direct 
preservation  of  the  animal  as  a  whole.  The  object  of  the 
laws  of  society  is  the  indirect  preservation  of  society,  and 
the  direct  preservation  of  the  individual ;  but  the  one  can- 
not be  accomplished  without  the  other.  In  this  regard  the 
tendencies  of  the  animal  organization  and  the  social  organiza- 
tion are  opposite.  The  animal  organism  is  held  together  by 


278       THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF   HUMANITY 

the  physical,  by  the  various  tissues  of  the  body.  Society  is 
held  together  by  the  psychical,  by  the  moral  and  social  senses 
and  their  resultant,  religion. 

Another  difficulty  about  the  concept  of  the  social  organ- 
ism is  just  what  division  of  humanity  constitutes  a  social 
organism.  Is  it  a  tribe,  a  nation,  a  race,  or  humanity  as  a 
whole?  In  some  senses  it  is  each  of  these;  for  some  pur- 
poses each.  Morally  and  intellectually  the  whole  race  is  one 
organism ;  but  economically,  to-day,  each  nation  is  a  separate 
organism.  Just  as  there  are  billions  of  forms  of  animal 
organism  which  are  classified  into  five  types,  so  the  social 
organism  has  many  forms  which  can  be  classified  in  a  few 
types — the  clan,  the  tribe,  the  nation,  the  confederation  of 
nations,  and  ultimately  the  human  race  as  a  whole.  And  a 
similar  history  has  occurred  to  the  social  organism  that  has 
occurred  to  animal  organisms.  There  is  no  doubt  but  that 
man's  animal  organism  has  passed  through  certain  phases  of 
all  the  animal  types;  so  the  social  organism  to-day  has 
passed  through  the  various  types  of  the  social  organism,  and 
is  destined  to  reach  the  acme  of  social  development  as  man 
has  reached  the  acme  of  individual  development. 

Ill 

Just  as  the  animal  organism  adjusts  means  to  ends  through 
ideas,  thus  securing  the  greatest  economy  of  energy,  so  the 
social  organism,  when  perfected,  will  adjust  means  to  ends 
through  public  corporate  knowledge.  The  social  organism 
'to-day  acts  blindly  and  adjusts  means  to  ends  by  instinct, 
stimuli,  and  our  imperfect  moral  and  social  senses.  The  ani- 
mal organism  registers  ideas,  possible  lines  of  expending 
energy;  the  social  organism  registers  knowledge  in  language 
and  institutions,  possible  lines  of  expending  human  energy, 
feelings  and  emotions,  in  the  most  economic  manner  pos- 
sible, constituting  the  social  sense.  An  idea  is  the  residua 
of  external  energy  in  an  organism ;  knowledge,  the  social 


THE  SOCIAL  ORGANISM  279 

sense,  consists  of  concepts  resulting  from  the  coalescing  ef 
ideas;  it  is  the  residua  of  ideas;  it  is  the  common  mass  of 
knowledge  the  individual  accepts  as  the  truth,  independent 
of  experience  and  investigation ;  it  is  the  mental  environment 
of  the  individual.  It  may  be  error;  it  should  be  verifiable 
truth.  It  is  what  the  race  as  an  organism  has  learned  and 
recorded  about  itself  and  nature,  used  to  guide  the  individual 
in  the  expenditure  of  his  energies  through  institutions  and 
knowledge  in  his  actions  in  society.  The  external  manifes- 
tations of  the  social  sense  are  language,  institutions,  the  arts 
and  sciences.  The  internal  manifestations  in  the  individual 
are  representations,  concepts  of  the  external  manifestations 
registered  in  the  individual  by  the  law  of  repetition  through 
education  and  experience.  The  individual  really  inherits  his 
social  sense  outside  him,  for  the  reason  that  acquired  social 
characteristics  of  the  individual  are  only  slightly  hereditary ; 
whereas  society,  through  the  law  of  repetition  and  natural 
selection,  preserves  everything  that  is  good  and  true  and 
beautiful.  It  is  better  for  man  to  inherit  his  social  sense 
outside  him  than  within  him,  because  the  process  permits  of 
greater  variation,  greater  adaptability,  greater  development. 

While  the  animal  organism  has  little  trouble  in  using  its 
energies  through  ideas,  the  social  organism  cannot  direct 
human  energy  by  knowledge  unless  it  is  distributed  among 
all  the  members  of  society  so  that  it  can  be  made  into  laws 
and  institutions.  Here  it  is  the  analogy  between  the  animal 
organism  and  the  social  organism  breaks  down ;  for  the  rela- 
tion of  the  human  mind  and  body  is  so  much  more  perfect 
than  the  relation  of  the  units  of  the  social  organism  and 
knowledge  and  institutions.  Man's  individual  nature  and 
his  social  nature  are  not  nearly  so  well  understood  as  the 
relation  existing  between  his  mind  and  his  body. 

It  is  a  much  simpler  form  of  organism  in  which  the  intel- 
ligence of  the  organism  is  centralized,  as  in  the  animal  organ- 
ism, than  it  is  when  located  in  the  units  as  in  the  social 


280       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

organism;  but  the  possibilities  of  the  social  organism  with 
its  intelligent  units  is  vastly  superior  to  the  animal  organism 
with  its  blind  units ;  for  having  the  mind  of  the  social  organ- 
ism throughout  the  organism  makes  it  susceptible  to  the 
widest  possible  environment,  hence  susceptible  to  the  most 
complete  adaptation  to  nature.  Nature  goes  from  one 
extreme  to  another.  In  the  animal  organism  the  highest 
development  was  accomplished  that  could  be  accomplished 
by  the  centralization  of  mind  in  an  organism ;  in  the  social 
organism  it  will  be  seen  what  can  be  done  by  the  decentral- 
ization of  mind,  making  the  organism  as  a  whole  the  seat  of 
the  directing  power.  The  possibilities  of  the  social  organ- 
ism are  as  much  greater  than  the  animal  organism,  as  the 
animal  organism  is  greater  than  inorganic  matter;  but  owing 
to  its  infancy  to-day  its  wonderful  future  is  not  divined. 

Ideas  classify  themselves  in  the  mind  the  same  as  the 
energies  producing  them  classify  themselves  in  nature,  and 
because  all  phenomena  through  the  law  of  internal  repeti- 
tion and  the  law  of  external  repetition  are  resultants  of  the 
interaction  of  the  energies  constituting  matter  and  the  ener- 
gies constituting  the  conditions  of  matter,  there  is  sufficient 
likeness  in  the  multitudinous  phenomena  of  nature  to  make 
but  one  classification,  it  being  the  different  forms  of  the 
energies  constituting  matter.  Besides,  ideas  are  always  in 
connection  with  the  internal  energies  of  the  organism  and 
the  motor  apparatus  for  putting  these  ideas  into  actions. 
Whereas  the  association  of  knowledge  in  the  social  organism, 
depending  upon  language  and  institutions,  is  handicapped 
by  their  imperfections,  so  much  so  that  the  most  important 
knowledge  is  not  distributed  for  ages  after  it  is  discovered, 
and  institutions  based  on  it  are  not  so  much  as  dreamed  of, 
let  alone  founded.  The  social  mechanism  for  distributing 
knowledge  (the  rostrum,  the  pulpit,  the  theater,  the  press, 
conversation,  the  school),  the  social  mechanism  for  dis- 
charging social  energy  (oral  and  written  language,  the  tele- 


THE  SOCIAL  ORGANISM  281 

phone,  the  telegraph),  and  the  motor  mechanism  for  social 
guidance  (the  community,  the  church,  the  school,  the  state), 
are  all  in  their  infancy. 

The  life  of  the  individual  being  so  short,  the  social  organ- 
ism so  difficult  of  organization,  owing  to  the  imperfection  of 
the  social  sense,  and  not  being  consciously  produced,  as  a 
result  the  social  organism,  consisting  of  civilization  to-day, 
is  only  in  a  nascent  form  of  organization.  Society  is  almost 
wholly  a  product  of  feeling — the  moral  sense,  private  cor- 
porations, powerful  associations  of  men,  professions,  families, 
classes  actuated  by  individual  energy,  selfishness,  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  moral  and  social  senses,  actuated  by  the  altruism 
of  religion. 

IV 

There  are  some  few  functions  that  society  regulates  by 
knowledge;  but  conscious  social  control  is  decidedly  the 
exception.  The  human  race  being  run  by  feeling,  as  & 
result,  while  the  right  action  is  performed  in  the  end,  it  is 
at  an  enormous  waste  of  energy.  As  everything  in  physical 
nature  tries  to  produce  the  individual,  so  every  individual  in 
society,  in  his  own  way,  tries  to  produce  society,  not  accord- 
ing to  knowledge,  but  to  feelings,  emotions,  instincts;  hence 
the  conflict,  waste  of  energy  and  final  adjustment.  The  pro- 
duction, distribution  and  consumption  of  the  products  of  the 
race  in  every  department  of  life  are  almost  wholly  a  matter 
of  feeling.  The  social  organism  never  orders  anything 
made,  anything  produced,  anything  distributed,  anything 
consumed.  It  acts  from  stimuli  alone.  Whatever  is  felt  is 
done.  Nothing  is  known  beforehand.  Supply  and  demand 
is  a  blind  law  of  feeling,  of  instinct.  The  laws  of  political 
economy  are  natural  laws,  energy  taking  the  line  of  the  least 
resistance  determined  by  the  contending  energies,  not  lines 
of  right  or  truth,  purely  physical,  unmoral  and  unsocial  in 
the  true  sense  of  these  words,  and  are  uninfluenced  by 


282       THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF   HUMANITY 

knowledge.  They  aro  antagonistic  to  the  moral  sense 
because  they  permit  one  man  to  take  undue  advantage  of 
another,  and  permit  individuals  and  classes  to  take  advan- 
tage of  society  as  a  whole,  making  the  ruling  class  a  kind  of 
parasite  to  live  off  the  race  to  the  detriment  of  every  one. 
The  laws  of  political  economy  are  antagonistic  to  the  social 
sense  because  they  justify  the  neutralization,  opposition  and 
waste  of  human  energy  we  see  displayed  everywhere  in 
society  to-day  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  in  the  unjust  dis- 
tribution of  wealth,  in  the  prosecution  of  wars  and  govern- 
mental oppression,  and  fail  to  introduce  the  same  economy 
into  society  by  verifiable,  scientific,  public,  corporate  knowl- 
edge which  is  introduced  into  the  life  of  the  animal  organism 
by  the  intellect.  The  social  organism  is  indeed  imperfect. 

Keally  the  analogon  of  the  social  organism  is  not  the  ani- 
mal organism,  but  the  organism  we  see  in  physical  nature, 
the  solar  system,  the  universal  process.  Energies  in  inor- 
ganic nature  are  perfectly  blind ;  they  take  the  line  of  the 
least  resistance  in  their  expenditure,  and  the  result  is 
determined  by  the  contending  energies.  This  is  what  takes 
place  in  the  social  organism,  only  there  are  nascent  forms  of 
social  organization  in  which  there  is  some  economic  control. 
The  best  that  can  be  claimed  for  the  control  of  society  is  that 
it  is  similar  to  the  lowest  forms  of  animal  life.  The  social 
organism  when  perfectly  under  the  control  of  the  moral  and 
social  senses  will  then  be  similar  to  the  control  of  the  animal 
organism  to-day.  The  waste  of  energy  going  on  in  society 
reminds  one  of  the  waste  of  energy  going  on  out  in  physical 
nature,  not  the  fine  economy  of  the  perfected  animal 
organism  under  the  control  of  the  intellect. 

Just  as  the  intellect  of  man  supplies  his  organism  with  the 
most  economic  forms  of  expending  energies  by  having 
recorded  in  its  nervous  system  the  experience  of  the  indi- 
vidual in  the  form  of  ideas,  so  the  perfect  social  organism 
through  knowledge  (the  social  sense)  will  supply  the  social 


THE  SOCIAL  ORGANISM  283 

organism  with  the  most  economic  forms  of  expending  energy 
in  the  form  of  laws  and  institutions.  But  to-day  the  prod- 
ucts of  society  are  produced  as  extravagantly,  as  unintelli- 
gently,  as  carelessly,  as  blindly  as  animals  and  plants 
reproduce  themselves  in  a  state  of  nature.  In  order  that 
one  tree  may  live  and  reach  maturity  millions  of  seeds  are 
produced;  in  order  that  one  animal  may  live  and  reach  matu- 
rity millions  of  animals  are  born.  So  with  the  productions  of 
the  human  race  to-day.  Enough  food  to  supply  the  whole 
human  race  can  be  produced  in  the  central  states  of  the 
United  States,  but  the  so-called  machinery  of  distribution  of 
the  race  to-day  is  so  poorly,  so  ignorantly,  so  unscientifically 
developed  that  with  all  of  its  vast  productions,  the  greatest 
evil  that  confronts  the  race  to-day  is  artificial  poverty.  The 
distribution  of  the  products  of  society  flow  as  irregularly,  as 
wastefully,  as  unintelligently  to  their  markets  and  uses  as  do 
the  rivers  of  the  earth  in  their  tortuous  windings  towards 
their  great  market,  the  sea.  There  is  no  conscious  adapta- 
tion of  means  to  ends  in  society  to-day.  Everything  is  done 
blindly  as  in  inorganic  nature,  or  by  instinct  as  in  the  lowest 
forms  of  animals.  Society  nowhere  shows  that  adaptation  of 
means  to  ends  which  man  makes  under  reason,  or  which  society 
will  make  under  the  moral  and  social  senses  when  the  social 
organism  is  perfect.  The  expenditure  of  energy  in  society 
to-day  follows  the  line  of  the  least  resistance,  or  greatest 
attraction,  of  present  experience,  feeling,  instinct,  and  not 
any  of  the  many  lines  that  could  be  worked  out  by  knowl- 
edge or  have  already  been  discovered  by  the  human  race 
during  its  long  history.  Or  the  functions  of  society  are 
performed  by  classes  prostituting  the  social  organism  to 
their  own  use,  and  letting  the  great  mass  of  humanity  be 
workers  in  the  human  hive  of  civilization,  supporting  them 
in  their  royal  usurpations.  If  any  of  the  energy  of  society 
is  made  to  follow  lines  of  least  resistance  guided  by  intelli- 
gence, it  is  not  for  society  as  a  whole,  but  for  the  particular 


284-       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

intelligent  class.  As  a  result  human  life  is  still  on  its  low- 
est plane,  the  physical.  Not  more  than  one  person  in  a  hun- 
dred strives  for  anything  else  than  a  physical  subsistence. 
We  live  as  the  beasts  of  the  field,  the  fowls  of  the  air,  and 
the  fishes  of  the  sea.  All  of  our  multifarious  exertions,  our 
strenuous  efforts,  our  everlasting  actions  are  after  food,  rai- 
ment, and  shelter.  And  while  there  is  abundance  for  all, 
social  control  is  so  imperfect  that  a  few  take  everything  and 
the  vast  majority  are  in  actual  want  for  the  physical  neces- 
sities of  life. 

It  is  pitifully  absurd  to  see  individuals  who  have  nothing 
blandly  acquiescing  in  letting  others  take  everything  they 
produce;  but  it  is  intrinsically  more  absurd  to  see  individuals 
who  have  millions  striving  for  more  as  if  upon  the  verge  of 
starvation.  Life  has  but  one  occupation,  but  one  enjoy- 
ment, but  one  end — the  production  and  accumulation  of 
property.  There  are  two  explanations  of  this  anomaly. 
The  production  of  wealth  is  a  social  instinct  which  developed 
away  down  in  savagery  when  physical  subsistence  was  the  most 
important  problem  that  confronted  the  tribe,  and  which  the 
individual  still  follows  blindly;  and  secondly,  the  social 
function  of  religion  is  not  sufficiently  developed  to  cause  men 
to  forsake  the  physical  function  of  the  production  of  wealth, 
with  incidental  consumption  (for  the  great  pleasure  of 
money  is  in  making  it,  not  in  spending  it)  as  a  means  of 
producing  happiness  in  preference  to  mental  and  moral 
service  to  the  race.  But  the  time  will  come  when  mental 
and  moral  accumulations  will  be  as  valuable  as  physical 
property,  because  upon  them  will  depend  the  future  of  the 
race.  '  Such  is  beginning  to  be  the  condition  of  affairs  in 
western  civilization  to  day. 

The  race,  so  far  in  its  attempts  at  a  division  of  labor  in 
society,  has  always  resulted  in  developing  class-life,  which 
usurped  the  life  of  the  social  organism  as  a  whole,  and  which 
ended  in  degeneracy,  decay,  and  death  of  the  social  organism. 


285 

But  the  various  classes  developed,  starting  with  some  great  in- 
dividual, then  family,  clan,  theu  class,  have  gradually  become 
larger  and  larger  until  finally  the  race  as  a  whole  will  be 
one  great  class  controlled  by  intelligence  and  organized  by 
religion.  There  are  two  kinds  of  human  beings,  those  who 
work  for  order  and  those  who  work  for  progress,  a  kind  of 
sex ;  and  in  the  perfect  social  organism  these  two  distinct 
kinds  of  persons  will  be  adjusted  in  function  so  that  the 
social  organism  will  be  a  moving  equilibrium,  and  realize 
the  greatest  organism  possible  to  matter  and  energy,  and 
thereby  secure  the  greatest  economy  of  energy  in  all  nature. 

When  society  is  looked  at  in  this  comprehensive  way,  we 
see  the  imperative  necessity  of  having  the  social  sense  per- 
fectly scientific,  so  that  the  necessities  of  society  can  be 
determined,  its  needs  ascertained,  its  aspirations  calculated 
upon,  and  that  all  the  race  be  provided  for  by  a  profound 
foresight  and  planning.  The  life  of  the  race  is  as  possible 
of  determination  as  the  life  of  man.  The  great  trusts  have 
shown  us  what  intelligence,  corporate  knowledge,  can  do 
when  applied  to  industry.  Only  that  amount  of  labor  in 
any  line  which  is  necessary  should  be  performed.  It  is  waste 
to  produce  where  there  is  no  necessary  consumption.  A 
scientific  social  sense  will  render  the  entire  globe  habitable, 
and  will  limit  the  number  of  human  beings  by  the  principles 
of  stirpiculture  to  a  select  few  to  live  upon  it  and  enjoy  it. 

The  unequal  distribution  of  the  products  of  the  race, 
which  we  see  to-day,  rights  itself  naturally  by  producing 
degeneracy  among  the  classes  that  get  an  undue  share,  as  they 
spend  it  in  follies  and  vices;  and  the  dire  poverty  among 
the  oppressed  classes,  while  it  often  causes  degeneracy  and 
criminality  among  them,  is  yet  a  great  stimulus  to  genius, 
and  the  inexorable  hardships  of  life  produce  an  acute  moral 
sense,  which  results  in  religion.  Poverty  is  an  ill  wind,  but 
it  blows  humanity  much  good.  Unfortunately  for  the  race, 
the  fact  that  human  property  is  so  poorly  distributed  is  not 


286       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

patent  to  all;  the  moral  sense  developed  by  the  church  being 
so  dull  as  not  to  feel  it,  and  the  social  sense  of  theology  so 
blind  as  not  to  see  it.  We  are  told  that  it  is  God's  will 
that  things  should  be  so,  and  for  believing  it  we  are  prom- 
ised a  realization  of  our  hopes  in  a  life  beyond  the  grave.  It 
is  shocking  to  realize  that  the  moral  and  social  senses  of 
to-day  have  such  an  antiquated  conception  of  human  destiny, 
and  that  our  scientists,  moralists,  and  reformers  do  not 
boldly,  courageously  and  grandly  proclaim  the  truth,  and 
let  man  come  into  his  inheritance  that  lies  in  the  destiny  of 
matter  and  energy,  the  perfect  socialization  of  the  race. 

To-day  the  poor  cannot  live  a  higher  life  on  account  of 
poverty,  the  rich  on  account  of  greed.  There  is  little  use  to 
preach  the  beauties  of  art,  the  grandeurs  of  science,  the  good 
of  morality,  the  religion  of  protecting  and  perfecting  the 
race  through  knowledge ;  for  with  every  one  locked  within 
the  death  grip  of  the  struggle  for  existence,  who  can  hear? 
Even  short  as  life  is,  if  it  were  controlled  by  laws  and  insti- 
tutions worked  out  by  knowledge  instead  of  instinct,  it 
could  be  made  so  beautiful!  We  live  in  such  a  wonderful 
world,  and  are  such  marvelous  creatures  ourselves,  infinitely 
greater  and  grander  than  ever  theology  conceived,  yet 
nothing  more  than  products  of  the  elements  and  energies 
about  us,  how  can  any  one  be  content  simply  to  exist  and 
not  know  all  there  is  to  know ;  to  live  and  not  feel  all  the 
delightful  feelings  and  emotions  possible  to  our  wonderful 
nature!  How  small  human  life  is;  how  large  it  could  be! 

And  yet  one  who  proclaims  this  greater  life,  this  heaven 
on  earth,  this  justice  to  all  men,  this  greatest  happiness  to 
the  greatest  number,  will  be  anathematized  by  the  very  per- 
sons who  logically  should  be  the  first  to  accept  it. 


The  mind,  the  inherited  and  registered  experience  of  the 
individual,  is  seemingly  almost  perfect  in  its  functions,  every 


THE  SOCIAL  ORGANISM  287 

conception  being  within  its  grasp  except  infinite  time  and 
infinite  space;  while  knowledge  as  registered  in  language  and 
institutions,  the  inherited,  registered  and  executed  expe- 
rience of  society,  the  social  organism,  is  so  imperfect  that  a 
comparison  between  the  mental  organism  of  man  and  the 
institutions  and  knowledge  of  the  social  organism  may  seem 
visionary;  still  there  is  not  so  wide  a  difference  in  perfection 
as  at  first  seems  to  exist.  The  mind  is  no  more  a  perfect 
unity  than  society  is;  it  is  little  more  organic,  but  its 
organization  is  simpler  and  much  more  definite.  Besides, 
our  egoism  makes  us  strangely  deluded  as  to  the  perfection 
of  the  mind,  and  onr  ignorance  of  the  social  organism  ren- 
ders us  incapable  of  making  the  comparison.  But  when 
such  processes  as  production,  distribution  and  consumption 
are  carried  on  without .  any  great  disequilibrium  for  years  at 
a  time  the  life  of  society  must  be  highly  organic,  the 
unknown  energies  of  society  controlled  by  blind  social 
instincts  adjust  themselves  one  to  another,  resulting  in  the 
present  social  organism  of  which  we  know  so  little.  We  do 
not  understand.  We  are  parts  of'  an  organism  with  such 
intricate  functions  that  we  do  not  know  what  the  whole 
organism  is ;  we  are  parts  of  an  organization  too  great  for  us 
to  comprehend.  Yet,  when  looked  at  from  another  point  of 
view,  the  mystery  of  the  social  organism  grows  less ;  for  by 
diligent  study,  all  of  its  phenomena  can  be  placed  in  a  very 
few  classes  and  a  concept  of  the  whole  be  made. 

Mind  is  a  total  product  of  the  condition  of  all  of  the  brain 
cells  and  nerve  tissues  of  the  body,  and  is  unified  by  the 
association  of  all  ideas  with  the  idea  of  self.  But  while  all 
of  the  ideas  of  tfae  mind  are  in  connection  with  the  will  or 
self,  or,  differently  put,  while  the  whole  content  of  the  intel- 
lect is  organized  with  the  will,  and  we  can  say  that  we  know 
all  that  there  is  in  our  nervous  system,  yet  there  are  many 
kinds  of  ideas  that  have  no  relation  to  one  another,  and  no 
matter  if  they  are  in  connection  with  our  will,  they  are 


288       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

never  brought  into  consciousness  in  comparison  with  one 
another.  A  mind  so  constituted,  and  all  are  so  more  or  less, 
is  illogical;  that  is,  its  ideas  are  incorrectly  grouped  or  not 
grouped  at  all.  Men's  theological  ideas  have  little  to  do  with 
their  scientific  ideas,  their  business  ideas  with  their  moral 
ideas,  their  political  ideas  with  their  religious  ideas,  or,  to  put 
this  defect  in  our  terminology,  their  moral  sense  is  not  sup- 
plemented by  their  social  sense,  and  their  religion  is  not  based 
on  morality.  The  human  mind  is  profoundly  illogical.  It 
is  almost  as  inconsistent  as  society  is  discontinuous.  The 
individual  as  an  individual  often  knows  his  best  interest  no 
better  than  society  knows  its  best  interest.  This  is  why 
self-interest  cannot  be  the  basis  of  the  social  organism.  "We 
can  really  know  the  interest  of  others  better  than  our  own 
interest,  and  by  working  for  it  instead  of  our  own  interest 
the  perfect  social  organism  is  secured.  Society  must  be 
based  on  social -interest,  religion;  then  justice  cannot  be 
denied  to  the  individual,  for  it  will  be  in  the  possession  of 
the  entire  race. 

Society  is  the  total  product  of  all  the  actions  of  all  the 
individuals,  corporations  and  classes  constituting  it,  as  they 
are  bound  together  by  feelings,  emotions,  knowledge  and 
institutions,  and  by  economic  dependence.  Society  is  unified 
by  the  instinct  religion,  which  protects,  perpetuates  and 
perfects  its  existence  through  the  moral  and  social  senses; 
and  as  the  moral  and  social  senses  are  very  imperfect,  so 
society's  organization  is  very  imperfect;  its  adaptation  to 
nature  is  imperfect,  the  individual's  adaptation  to  the  social 
organism  is  very  imperfect,  and  conseqently  the  functions  of 
the  social  organism  are  very  imperfect.  But  when  the  social 
sense  is  verifiable  scientific  knowledge  and  religion  is  based 
on  morality,  then  the  social  organism  will  have  known  func- 
tions and  known  structures,  the  same  as  the  animal  organism. 

Religion  is  in  all  of  us,  and  has  been  in  humanity  since  it 
was  low  down  in  the  scale  of  animal  development.  It  is  the 


THE  SOCIAL  ORGANISM  289 

social  cement  of  society.  Whether  it  is  the  highest  emotion 
possible  to  man,  or  one  of  the  lowest  and  most  superstitious, 
depends  upon  the  development  of  the  moral  and  social 
senses  of  a  people.  Whether  or  not  religion  is  a  blind 
superstition,  being  a  reaction  from  the  grossest  idolatry  or 
the  basest  worship  of  imaginary  gods,  who  sanction  the 
murder  of  innocent  children,  who  punish  unbelievers  with 
eternal  torment  in  a  burning  hell-fire,  or  a  reaction  from 
the  performance  of  one's  intellectually  appreciated  func- 
tions in  society,  depends  upon  the  moral  and  social  senses 
of  a  people  in  vogue  at  any  given  time.  Eeligion  is  to 
society  what  the  ego  is  to  the  individual;  and  as  the  ego  is 
the  center  of  gravity  of  the  individual,  so  religion  is  the 
center  of  gravity  of  the  social  organism. 

No  wonder  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  get  a  perfect  conception 
of  the  social  organism,  when  religion,  the  cause  of  its 
statical  conditions,  is  so  little  understood;  and  the  function 
of  knowledge,  the  cause  of  its  dynamic  conditions,  is  not 
comprehended.  The  social  organism,  being  run  by  blind 
instincts,  expends  its  energies  so  wastefully  that  there  is  no 
wonder  that  the  individualists  say  there  is  no  social  organism 
at  all.  The  social  organism  will  be  as  comprehensible  as  the 
animal  organism  when  the  function  of  religion  is  known  and 
knowledge,  the  social  sense,  is  extended  to  the  whole  race. 
Then  the  unity  of  the  race  will  be  effected  by  religion ;  its 
energies  will  be  guided  by  knowledge,  and  the  economy  of  all 
energy  will  be  perfect. 

Society  is  organized  by  distributing  knowledge  of  itself 
among  all  the  individuals  constituting  it.  There  is  no  trait 
of  character  stronger  in  man  than  the  desire  to  communicate 
knowledge;  none  gives  more  pleasure.  To  impart  knowl- 
edge is  an  instinct.  Nothing  is  so  fascinating  as  news. 
Humanity  is  so  susceptible  to  knowledge  that  a  startling 
alarm  produces  a  panic,  a  stampede,  and  the  ensuing  action 
of  intelligent  men  is  similar  to  that  of  gregarious  animals. 


290       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

During  the  enthusiasm  of  a  political  campaign,  one  sees  the 
ease  with  which  great  masses  of  men  can  be  moulded  to  some 
one  belief  through  self-interest,  fear,  partisanship.  With 
the  proper  dynamic,  the  human  race  is  very  susceptible  of 
change.  When  knowledge  and  religion  are  coupled,  the 
perfection  of  the  social  organism  is  but  a  matter  of  time. 

While  it  is  impossible  for  an  individual  to  know  his  rela- 
tion to  each  and  every  individual  of  society ;  yet,  as  society 
as  a  whole  is  but  a  repetition  of  similar  parts,  a  working 
knowledge  of  society  as  a  whole  is  by  no  means  an  impossi- 
bility to  the  individual,  in  fact,  is  as  easily  acquired  as 
knowledge  of  nature  in  relation  to  the  individual  organism. 
As  the  different  parts  of  the  brain  can  communicate  with  one 
another  by  means  of  the  internal  energies,  so  it  is  possible 
for  the  mind,  through  self,  to  group  all  of  its  ideas  into  one 
unity.  The  individuals  of  society  are  bound  together  by 
their  religion,  perfectly  or  imperfectly,  depending  upon  its 
purity,  elevation,  refinement  and  the  fulness  with  which  it 
holds  sway.  The  individuals  of  society  communicate  with 
one  another  by  means  of  the  moral  and  social  senses  in  the 
languages  and  the  arts,  residua  of  human  experience  in 
human  energy  with  human  beings.  Whether  or  not  the 
whole  of  the  phenomena  of  society  is  registered  in  the  indi- 
vidual depends  upon  the  degrees  of  perfection  of  language 
and  institutions,  the  moral  and  social  senses;  for  upon  them 
depends  the  quality  of  its  religion,  its  entire  civilization. 
At  the  present  status  of  society  the  majority  of  the  indi- 
viduals are  ignorant  of  the  organization  of  society;  hence 
social  institutions  are  not  only  impotent,  but  often  defeat 
the  very  function  for  which  'they  were  created. 

Eeligion  to-day  is  chiefly  a  matter  of  individual  salvation ; 
its  social  function  of  binding  the  race  together  as  an  organism 
is  still  instinctive.  The  imaginary  world  is  still  supreme,  and 
the  destiny  of  nations,  the  race,  is  God's  business,  not  human- 
ity's. But  while  this  is  deplorable,  think  of  the  condition  of 


THE  SOCIAL  ORGANISM  291 

society  three  centuries  ago,  when  poverty  was  not  deemetl  an 
evil,  when  war  was  the  only  way  of  settling  public,  national, 
and  international  disputes;  when  the  struggle  for  existence 
was  acquiesced  in  as  a  curse  of  God,  and  our  beautiful  and 
exquisite  life  was  so  black  that  the  whole  Western  World 
believed  it  a  curse  and  only  a  preparation  for  an  imaginary 
life  beyond  the  grave  in  which  our  longings  for  justice, 
purity,  freedom,  security,  socialization  will  be  realized! 
How  unkind  God  is  to  make  us  take  a  promise  for  all  our 
noble  aspirations,  our  sublime  hopes,  our  grand  expecta- 
tions !  Is  it  not  beautiful  to  know  that  theology  is  untrue, 
and  that  our  longings  for  a  greater  life  are  a  prophecy  of  their 
realization  here  on  earth  and  not  beyond  the  grave? 

The  ignorance  of  the  social  organism  by  a  majority  of  its 
individuals  is  due  to  the  imperfection  of  its  organization,  to 
a  low  form  of  religion,  an  imperfect  development  of  language 
and  institutions,  and  a  low  form  of  the  moral  and  social 
senses.  Our  present  condition  can  be  attributed  to  a  petty 
conception  of  the  function  of  religion  and  relying  upon  an 
imaginary  God  for  the  salvation  of  the  race  instead  of  upon 
the  moral  and  social  senses  scientifically  developed.  So,  really 
after  all,  the  phenomena  of  mind  are  as  difficult  of  comprehen- 
sion as  the  phenomena  of  society;  for  the  philosophy  of  the 
mind  would  also  be  a  philosophy  of  society.  There  is  no  cause 
for  despair.  The  high  development  of  isolated  individuals 
with  a  true  theory  of  things,  a  true  concept  of  the  ultimate 
social  function  of  religion,  will  inevitably  formulate  a  plan  for 
the  organization  of  society  on  more  economic  lines  than  now, 
and  society  will  inevitably  adopt  it ;  for  human  energy,  like  all 
energy,  will  seek  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  when  once 
known.  Our  hope  of  salvation  is  not  based  on  a  vision,  but 
on  facts  and  the  laws  of  the  dissipation  of  energy.  Progress 
will  inevitably  result  from  the  promulgation  of  the  true 
philosophy  of  civilization,  which  shows  the  individual  what 
he  really  is,  and  gives  him  a  rational  basis  to  work  on. 


292       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

Language  is  by  far  the  greatest  achievement  the  race  has 
ever  made;  oral  language  being  a  kind  of  sense  of  hearing 
to  the  social  organism,  written  language  a  kind  of  memory ; 
language  is  a  kind  of  social  nervous  tissue  in  which  the  race 
receives  knowledge  and  stores  it  for  future  ages.  As  knowl- 
edge is  to  the  social  organism  what  ideas  are  to  the  animal 
organism,  and  as  the  more  pictures  of  nature,  ideas,  avenues 
of  expending  energy  the  animal  organism  has  registered  in 
its  nervous  system,  the  more  different  kinds  of  actions  it  is 
competent  to  make,  hence  the  greater  adaptation  to  the 
environment;  so  the  more  knowledge  the  social  organism 
possesses  in  the  form  of  scientific  knowledge,  the  greater 
variety  of  action  in  the  individual  it  can  determine,  and  the 
more  definite  action  it  will  be  able  to  perform  as  an  organ- 
ism, hence  the  greater  the  adaptation  of  the  individual  to  the 
social  organism  and  the  greater  the  adaptation  of  the  social 
organism  to  the  environment.  There  can  be  no  truly  great 
civilization  without  universal  verifiable  knowledge ;  as  a  high 
form  of  animal  is  impossible  without  many  ideas  with  which 
to  protect  itself.  Civilization  has  developed  as  knowledge 
has  been  acquired;  hence  the  necessity  of  distributing 
knowledge.  This  is  to-day  an  ever-present  instinct.  The 
naturalistic  explanation  of  the  eagerness  with  which  human 
beings  communicate  knowledge  of  all  kinds  is  that  it  is 
through  knowledge  that  the  social  organism  adjusts  itself  to 
its  environment.  So  far  in  history  the  communication  of 
knowledge  by  the  press,  the  pulpit,  the  theater,  conversa- 
tion, the  school,  has  been  more  or  less  instinctive,  each  dis- 
tributing knowledge  in  its  way ;  but  the  time  has  come  when 
knowledge  should  be  distributed  consciously  and  its  great 
social  function  be  made  known  to  the  whole  race.  The 
coming  great  institution  of  humanity  is  the  school.  It  will 
take  the  place  of  the  church,  and  will  supplement  the 
home. 


THE  SOCIAL  ORGANISM  293 

VI 

Character  is  to  the  individual  what  institutions  are  to 
society.  Character  is  the  residua  of  the  actions  of  the  indi- 
vidual ;  institutions  are  the  residua  of  the  actions  of  society. 
Character  is  a  result  of  executed  ideas ;  institutions  are  a 
result  of  executed  knowledge  or  blind  feelings  and  emotions. 

There  is  a  profound  truth  in  the  dictum:  "Believe  and 
thou  shalt  be  saved!"  For  if  the  individual  has  an  imper- 
fect social  sense,  he  will  necessarily  fail  in  adapting  himself 
to  society.  He  will  develop  a  character  out  of  harmony  with 
society.  And  society  with  an  imperfect  social  sense  will 
produce  institutions  that  cannot  control  individuals.  If 
the  individual  possesses  a  verifiable  social  sense  there  is  no 
doubt  as  to  the  glorious  future  of  society.  Nothing  is  of 
more  importance.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  society  has  the 
right,  and  has  always  instinctively  exercised  it,  to  determine 
the  individual  in  his  beliefs,  in  his  knowledge.  We  make  a 
great  pretense  at  absolute  freedom  of  thought,  but  the  race 
to-day  does  not  permit  differences  of  belief  and  knowledge 
only  in  matters  of  opinion.  We  have  freedom  of  thought  in 
developing,  extending  and  interpreting  fundamental  prin- 
ciples ;  but  the  facts  are,  social  types  of  thought  are  no  more 
to  be  departed  from  than  organic  types  of  life  are  varied  in 
the  evolution  of  animals.  We  have  freedom  of  thought 
within  prescribed  limits,  as  the  animal  has  opportunity  of 
variation  within  prescribed  limits. 

Persecution  is  the  logical  result  from  the  function  of  the 
social  sense.  It  stands  to  the  social  sense  as  punishment 
and  reward  do  to  the  moral  sense.  Heresy  is  a  thing  to  be 
deplored;  for  it  may  lead  the  whole  race  astray  on  funda- 
mental doctrines  of  social  progress;  yet  it  is  through  the 
heretic  that  progress  results,  that  the  social  sense  will  finally 
become  verifiable  knowledge.  All  animals  which  live  in 
societies  develop  certain  organs  for  social  defense,  for  exam- 
ple, the  sting  of  the  bee — death  to  the  individual  but  life  to 


294      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

the  hive;  so  society  develops  certain  specialized  individuals — 
reformers,  geniuses,  martyrs — who  die  that  society  may  live 
and  develop.  Persecution  is  the  fire  in  which  the  gold  of 
truth  is  purified.  It  has  been  the  only  way  that  primitive 
man  could  test  the  truth.  It  is  the  struggle  for  existence  in 
ideas  and  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  In  condemning  the 
excesses  of  the  Inquisition,  we  have  gone  to  the  opposite 
extreme,  and  the  individualist  says  that  society  has  no  right 
to  control  the  thought  of  the  individual  at  all.  Let  the 
individual  think  free,  live  free,  at  his  peril;  if  he  persists, 
the  race  will  persecute  him  with  shame,  disgrace,  even  death. 
He  pays  the  penalty,  as  does  the  bee  which  protects  the  hive 
with  its  own  life. 

The  objection  to  a  censorship  is  that  it  is  exercised  in 
the  interest  of  a  class  rather  than  the  whole  of  society.  It 
is  the  abuse  of  social  control  instead  of  its  proper  use. 
Criticism,  ridicule,  ostracism,  obscurity,  oblivion  are  the 
natural  punishments  for  the  failure  to  comply  with  the 
social  canons  of  thought.  A  man  of  genius  will  stand  any 
amount  of  social  censure,  while  an  eccentric  will  soon 
change  his  mode  of  thinking  or  pass  into  obscurity.  There 
is  no  characteristic  more  common  among  men  than  the 
enforcement  of  uniformity  of  knowledge  seen  in  actions 
most  trival,  as  the  guying  of  cranks  by  children,  and  in 
actions  most  serious,  as  the  martyrdom  of  men  of  genius  by 
society  as  a  whole. 

Let  the  mental  product  be  what  it  will,  the  social  sense 
acts  at  once  to  reduce  it  to  the  racial  type.  If  the  thought 
be  great  enough,  it  changes  the  entire  social  sense  by  being 
repeated  in  it;  as,  for  example,  the  work  of  Lord  Bacon, 
the  French  philosophers  of  the  eighteenth  century,  or  the 
teachings  of  Martin  Luther.  The  same  is  true  to-day. 
Few  writers  have  received  more  criticism  than  Charles  Dar- 
win, and  few  have  had  more  influence  on  the  social  sense  of 
his  age.  If  the  individual's  thought  is  too  remote  from  the 


THE  SOCIAL  ORGANISM  295 

social  type,  or  is  not  in  line  with  developing  humanity,  he  is 
left  to  obscurity,  maybe  centuries  afterwards  to  be  taken  up, 
as  in  the  case  of  Democritus  and  Epicurus.  Again,  the 
genius  may  fail  of  appreciation  by  his  generation,  but  be  so 
in  line  with  human  progress,  that  he  will  live  for  centuries 
as  a  modern,  as,  for  example,  Shakespeare.  That  writer 
lives  who  can  anticipate  the  social  sense  of  the  future,  let 
him  be  poet  or  scientist. 

VI 

What  the  social  organism  will  be  like  when  it  is  more 
matured  is  dimly  adumbrated  in  the  different  kinds  of 
societies  we  see  among  bees  and  ants.  There  is  danger, 
however,  of  being  misunderstood  in  this  comparison,  for  with 
ants  and  bees  (for  that  matter  all  animals)  feeling  is  the  only 
way  of  guiding  individual  actions,  as  it  is  with  us  under  the 
moral  sense.  The  social  life  of  ants  and  bees  is  society  by 
the  moral  sense  alone.  They  have  no  social  sense. 

With  humanity  the  moral  sense  is  supplemented  by  the 
social  sense,  and  human  civilization  is  higher  in  proportion 
as  mankind  is  higher  in  intellectual  development  than  ants 
and  bees,  and  as  the  social  sense  is  wider  in  scope  than  the 
moral  sense.  In  the  coming  socialization  of  the  race  the 
social  organism  will  be  the  object  to  be  maintained,  not  for 
itself  however,  but  for  the  benefit  of  the  individual ;  and  the 
individual  will  be  perfectly  coordinated  to  it,  as  the  indi- 
vidual bees  of  the  hive  are  now  coordinated  to  it.  The 
individual's  social  functions,  however,  will  be  as  great  a 
source  of  happiness  to  him  then  as  his  individual  functions 
are  now.  He  will  be  a  specialized  individual,  as  is  the  genius 
to-day,  his  precursor.  To-day  the  individual  is  supremely 
happy  only  in  being  selfish ;  then  he  will  be  ecstatically  happy 
only  in  performing  his  social  functions;  he  will  be  happy  in 
being  altrustic.  The  development  of  such  a  society  is  only 
a  matter  of  time;  for  social  organisms  are  as  well  within  the 


296      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

province  of  the  possible  development  of  the  universal  process 
as  chemical  compounds,  plants  and  animals,  and  nothing  but 
our  narrow  theological  social  sense  could  keep  us  from  see- 
ing this  great  truth. 

When  the  human  race  is  once  socialized  the  habitability  of 
the  entire  earth  can  be  realized  by  the  enormous  power  of 
the  social  organism,  it  being  able  to  change  the  face  of  the 
entire  planet  by  equalizing  its  temperature,  products  and 
substances.  Probably  this  has  already  occurred  in  the  case 
of  the  planet  Mars.  Matter  and  energy  reach  their  highest 
possibilities  in  small  planets  the  same  as  in  larger  ones,  intel- 
ligent beings  appearing  at  different  times,  owing  to  different 
physical  conditions.  Human  destiny  here  on  earth  is  as 
grand  as  the  destiny  of  any  of  the  intelligent  beings  in  any 
of  the  numerous  solar  systems  seen  throughout  space. 
Nature  is  but  a  repetition  of  itself,  and  what  we  see  here  on 
earth  is  duplicated  all  over  the  universe.  Really  the  earth 
is  a  universe  within  itself.  But  in  order  to  comprehend  this 
great  monistic  conception  of  things  we  must  get  rid  of  our 
theological  social  sense  and  look  at  the  facts  as  they  are. 

Nothing  is  really  more  surprising  than  the  individual's 
egregious  egotism  as  reflected  in  our  theological  social  sense, 
which  teaches  that  the  whole  universe  was  created  that  he 
might  live.  And  it  i#  equally  surprising  that  man  does  not 
see  that  individually  he  cannot  accomplish  anything;  that 
the  only  possible  way  to  realize  the  perfect  control  of  the 
energies  of  nature  and  the  energies  of  society  is  through  the 
socialization  of  the  race.  And  when  a  naturalistic  concept 
of  things  does  dawn  upon  the  race,  the  progress  of  humanity 
will  be  incalculably  great,  and  the  socialization  of  the  race 
will  be  speedily  realized.  "We  will  make  up  lost  time.  In 
the  coming  democracy  will  be  realized  a  perfect  sociocracy. 


CHAPTER  XV 

SOCIAL   DYNAMICS. 


The  world  is  full  of  reformers,  but  these  physicians  of  the 
body  politic,  like  the  physicians  of  the  animal  body,  too 
often  treat  the  symptom  instead  of  the  disease.  What 
society  to-day  needs  is  not  adjustment  of  particular  facts  to 
the  individual,  such  as  temperance  reform,  tax  reform,  civil 
service  reform,  and  so  forth,  but  the  perfection  of  the  moral 
and  social  senses  that  will  naturally  remedy  all  of  these  evils 
by  a  just  distribution  of  wealth,  which  will  result  in  general 
social  health  and  progress.  With  economic  freedom  the 
possibilities  of  the  race  can  be  realized.  Beginning  with  our 
savage  ancestors,  when  they  first  used  the  word  "mine,"  the 
significance  of  property  has  constantly  grown,  until  to-day 
the  further  development  of  the  human  race  is  menaced  by 
its  unequal  distribution,  by  its  individual  accumulation,  and 
by  its  popular  worship.  It  is  taking  the  place  of  religion. 
In  its  control  of  property  the  human  race  has  tried  force,  it 
has  tried  cunning,  but  the  real  control  in  the  production, 
distribution  and  consumption  of  wealth  is  morality  and 
knowledge;  not  the  class-morality  of  to-day,  nor  the  theo- 
logical intellectuality,  but  a  morality  based  on  scientific 
knowledge  and  a  scientific  knowledge  based  on  a  study  of 
nature  and  society  purged  of  the  mind-closing  theories  of 
theology  and  sustained  by  religion  based  on  morality,  race- 
protecting,  race-developing  and  race-perfecting  conduct. 
What  society  needs  above  everything  else  is  a  theory  of 
things  comprehensive  enough  to  touch  the  individual's  dor- 

297 


298      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

mant  religious  nature,  and  call  it  into  enthusiastic  activity; 
then  all  the  vexatious  petty  evils  of  life  will  be  swallowed  up 
in  the  one  great  evil  of  individual  and  social  imperfection, 
and  all  the  petty  reforms  will  be  embraced  in  the  religion  of 
perfecting  society  through  consciously  invented  institutions, 
and  thereby  the  perfection  of  the  individwal  will  be  secured. 

Just  as  the  intellect  is  constantly  changing,  despite  the  will 
of  the  individual  to  keep  it  steadfast,  the  average  person 
deeming  consistency  and  persistency  of  beliefs  the  chief  of 
perfections;  so  the  moral  and  social  senses  are  constantly 
changing  despite  society's  love  of  order  and  stability  of 
institutions ;  all  innovations  being  branded  with  some  oppro- 
brious name,  and  conservatism,  even  when  manifestly  unjust, 
always  being  deemed  the  best  policy  for  right  living. 

It  is  the  custom  amongst  scientists  to-day  to  treat  all  sub- 
jects only  from  a  statical  point  of  view.  It  is  not  good  form 
to  suggest  change;  it  is  a  breach  of  scientific  etiquette, 
something  vulgar.  It  is  deemed  that  the  function  of  science 
is  to  describe  what  is,  and  not  so  mucn  as  to  hint  what 
ought  to  be,  let  alone  suggest  changes.  That  there  is  a 
dynamical  aspect  to  all  subjects  is  apparent  to  all  logical 
minds,  and  it  is  as  much  a  function  of  science  to  ask  the 
questions,  what  can  be  done?  what  ought  to  be  done?  as  to 
answer  the  question,  what  is?  And  it  is  the  double  function 
of  science  to  answer  both  questions.* 

The  ultra  dynamists  of  society  believe  that  the  social 
organism  can  be  torn  down  and  rebuilt  as  any  product  of  art 

*"A11  know  how  the  uneducated  talk.  Suppose  changes  in  laws  and  institu- 
tions are  suggested.  People  frequently  smile  in  a  superior  way  and  say:  'It 
does  very  weU  for  a  theorist  to  talk,  but  it  is  only  theory.'  Conditions  of  prop- 
erty, labor  and  capital  can  not  in  their  opinion  be  changed,  and  they  assume 
that  such  as  they  are  now,  they  will  continue  to  be.  'No,'  say  they,  'things  will 
go  on  pretty  much  the  same  old  way.'  Now  if  there  is  any  such  a  thing 
as  a  good  old  way  in  nature  or  society  the  man  has  never  yet  appeared  who  has 
discovered  it.  There  is  none.  The  assumption  that  there  is  such  a  thing  is 
mere  fiction.  *  *  *  Laws  undergo  change,  and  institutions,  which  are  the 
outgrowth  of  laws  and  customs,  are  gradually,  but  perpetually  undergoing 
modification.  '  Introduction  to  Political  Economy,  pp.  36.  36,  by  R.  T  ELY. 


SOCIAL  DYNAMICS  299 

— a  house,  a  machine ;  the  ultra  statists  maintain  that  the 
social  organism  is  as  inevitably  fixed  and  unchangeable  as  the 
organic  type  of  an  animal.  Each  of  these  extreme  views  is 
erroneous.  In  proportion  as  society  is  an  organic  product 
in  that  proportion  will  it  be  impossible  for  it  to  get  away 
from  its  type;  but  in  proportion  as  it  is  an  evolutionary 
organism  that  has  been  developed  by  the  laws  of  internal  and 
external  repetition  and  the  law  of  natural  selection,  in  that 
proportion  is  it  capable  of  modification  by  the  environment. 
Society  to-day,  being  in  a  nascent  form  of  organization,  is 
extremely  mobile,  and  of  the  two  parties,  the  dynamists 
and  the  statists,  the  dynamists  are  destined  to  be  dominant 
in  the  immediate  future.  For  every  gain  in  dynamism 
there  is  a  corresponding  gain  in  statism ;  but  if  the  dynam- 
ists are  not  in  the  majority  society  stands  like  Prometheus 
chained  to  a  rock,  a  god,  yet  incapable  of  action. 

The  two  fundamental  laws  of  nature  are  order  and  change ; 
order  being  primarily  produced  by  the  energies  constituting 
matter,  change  being  primarily  produced  by  the  energies 
constituting  the  conditions  of  matter.  It  is  the  interaction 
of  these  two  sets  of  energies  which  produces  everything  we 
see  in  the  universe,  as  everything  occurs  in  the  universal 
process  from  primal  mist  to  primal  mist.  It  is  the  interac- 
tion of  these  two  sets  of  energies  in  their  most  highly  devel- 
oped forms  of  religion  and  knowledge  which  produces  society. 
Kehgion  produces  order,  organization;  knowledge  produces 
change,  progress.  Order  and  progress  in  society  form  the 
equilibrium  which  constitutes  the  social  organism.  When 
either  set  of  energies  fails  to  act,  the  life  of  the  social 
organism  abates,  and,  should  either  completely  stop,  the 
organism  would  go  to  pieces.  Civilization  without  progress 
is  just  as  impossible  as  civilization  without  order. 

The  natural  unconscious  action  of  the  moral  and  social 
senses  has  done  all  it  can  do  towards  perfecting  the  social 
organism.  Just  as  the  individual  by  conscious  effort  per- 


300      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

fects  his  mind  and  character  through  education  and  train- 
ing, so  must  society  through  conscious  effort  distribute 
knowledge  throughout  society,  and  by  conscious  effort  reach 
social  perfection.  It  is  just  as  incumbent  upon  society  to 
see  that  there  is  progress  as  it  is  to  see  that  there  is  order ; 
but  neither  progress  nor  order  will  be  secured  until  society 
is  controlled  by  verifiable  public,  corporate  knowledge  and 
organized  by  a  religion  that  is  based  upon  morality. 

II 

Just  as  the  animal  organism  through  the  physiological 
division  of  labor  developed  organs,  so  does  the  social  organ- 
ism. But  what  is  misleading  about  the  organs  of  the  social 
organism  to-day  is  their  manifest  imperfection.  What  we 
call  organs  to-day  are  but  beginnings  of  what  will  be  organs 
under  conscious  society  organized  through  true  religion,  per- 
fect devotion  to  the  race.  Under  such  a  society  energy  will 
be  expended  economically,  and  the  greatest  happiness  to  the 
greatest  number  will  be  realized. 

The  organs  of  society  to-day  consist  of  institutions  public 
and  private:  private  institutions  being  business,  artistic, 
scientific,  social,  religious;  public  institutions  being  muni- 
cipal, county,  state,  national  and  international.  The  func- 
tion of  all  institutions  is  to  direct  and  control  human  energy, 
and  they  accomplish  their  work  through  corporate  knowl- 
edge. Examples  of  successful  guidance  of  human  energy 
through  public  corporate  knowledge  are  limited  in  number 
and  kind;  but  examples  of  successful  guidance  of  human 
energy  through  private  institutions,  usually  called  corpora- 
tions, are  the  characteristic  social  phenomena  of  our  age  and 
the  immediately  preceding  ages. 

Governments,  while  ostensibly  administered  for  the  benefit 
of  all,  are  still  the  same  as  in  all  past  time,  administered  in 
the  interest  of  powerful  classes.  Society,  public  corpora- 
tions, can  scarcely  be  said  to  be  run  by  public  corporate 


SOCIAL   DYNAMICS  301 

knowledge  even  for  class  purposes.  It  is  still  government 
by  blind  feeling.  Powerful  classes,  houses  of  nobility,  oli- 
garchies of  wealth,  plutocracies  of  privilege  sustain  to  the 
social  organism  on  which  they  live  a  relation  similar  to  that 
of  the  host  to  its  victim  in  parasitism.  And  as  a  form  of 
government,  it  is  equally  as  low  as  the  other  is  a  form  of 
life.  If  it  were  not  absolutely  impossible,  owing  to  the  high 
mentality  of  the  individual,  the  human  race  would  yet 
develop  a  form  of  society  similar  to  that  of  ants  and  bees; 
but  instead  all  tendencies  to  such  a  class-form  of  life  have 
invariably  ended  in  degeneration,  decay  and  death.  Man  is 
.destined  from  the  nature  of  his  intellect  to  universal  democ- 
racy and  complete  socialization.  All  class  governments 
have  two  tendencies — to  live  so  long  as  they  enlarge  the 
governing  class  and  die  as  soon  as  that  process  stops  through 
degeneracy,  decay  and  death.  The  ultimate  society  will  be 
class-society — but  the  whole  race  will  be  the  class. 

Society  began  with  individualism,  then  followed  class- 
government.  As  civilization  develops  the  governing  class 
enlarges,  until  to-day,  here  in  the  United  States,  there  is  a 
semblance  of  truth  in  saying  that  in  the  United  States  we 
have  a  government  of  the  people,  for  the  people,  and  by  the 
people.  This,  however,  is  so  in  name  only.  The  true  func- 
tion of  government  of  all,  by  all,  for  all  can  only  come  about 
with  the  democratization  of  the  race.  The  ultimate  goal  of 
humanity,  as  seen  in  all  history,  as  family  has  enlarged  into 
class,  class  into  people,  is  to  make  the  whole  of  society  into 
one  class,  one  people,  thus  realizing  the  democratization  of 
the  race.  A  great  consummation,  the  realization  of  which 
is  the  hope  of  the  twentieth  century. 

There  is  hardly  a  department  of  civilization  in  which  some 
individual  institution  is  not  now  acting,  and  in  many 
instances  private  corporations  perform  the  functions  pecu- 
liarly belonging  to  society  as  a  whole,  thus  using  the  social 
organism  as  a  means  of  private  gain.  Everything  in  nature 


302      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

develops  blindly.  The  third  law  of  motion,  the  expenditure 
of  energy  in  nature  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance 
determined  by  the  blind  contending  energies,  is  used  until 
the  fourth  law,  the  expenditure  of  energy  along  the  line  of 
the  least  resistance  determined  by  intellect,  is  developed; 
then  the  fourth  law  is  used  until  the  fifth  and  sixth  laws, 
the  expenditure  of  energy  by  the  moral  and  social  senses, 
are  developed.  Nature  holds  to  the  lower  way,  or  method,  of 
expending  energy  until  a  sufficient  development  is  reached 
to  adopt  the  higher,  which  inevitably  takes  place,  for  the 
fundamental  law  in  the  expenditure  of  all  energy  is  that  it 
takes  the  line  of  the  least  resistance,  however  it  is  deter- 
mined— by  force,  by  intellect,  by  knowledge.  So  private 
corporations  assuming  public  functions  is  purely  transitory, 
a  stepping-stone  to  public  corporate  guidance.  What  private 
corporations  have  been  able  to  save  for  themselves  through 
corporate  knowledge,  public  corporations  some  day  will  be 
able  to  save  for  society,  and  thus  will  be  able  to  give  to  all 
perfect  economic  freedom.  The  private  corporation  of 
to-day  is  a  teacher  of  the  public  corporation  of  to-morrow; 
as  class  rule  is  but  a  preparation  for  social  rule.  It  is  thus 
that  society  disciplines  the  individual  to  social  control.  As 
the  animal  organism  by  intellect  directs  its  energies  into  the 
lines  of  the  greatest  economy  and  controls  natural  energies 
to  individual  advantage,  so  will  the  social  organism  under 
the  social  sense,  public  corporate  knowledge  through  con- 
sciously invented  laws  and  institutions,  direct  human  energy 
into  the  lines  of  the  greatest  economy,  will  act  upon  nature 
as  an  organism,  will  thus  accomplish  changes  on  the  face  of 
the  earth  for  human  welfare  now  beyond  the  power  of 
human  imagination  to  conceive;  such  as  the  equalization  of 
the  temperature  of  the  earth,  and  effect  changes  in  the  social 
organism  that  will  eradicate  the  social  tragedies  of  poverty, 
the  struggle  for  existence,  and  war  by  the  enlightenment  of 
humanity,  which  will  lead  it  into  a  life  above  the  physical 


SOCIAL   DYNAMICS  303 

into  the  world  of  the  good,  the  trae,  the  beautiful,  the  social, 
as  successfully  as  the  moral  sense,  when  perfected,  will  erad- 
icate the  vices,  sins  and  crimes  of  the  individual. 

Ill 

To  show  the  great  gain  that  society  will  make  when  it  is 
able  to  act  from  verifiable  public,  corporate,  knowledge,  let 
us  take  some  specific  examples  of  such  action  from  private 
corporate  knowledge.  Before  any  of  the  great  trusts  of  the 
United-  States  were  organized  there  were  thousands  of  small 
producers  distributed  throughout  the  United  States  who 
were  duplicating  one  another  in  every  branch  of  the  busi- 
ness now  controlled  by  the  trusts.  The  present  manager  of 
one  of  the  greatest  trusts  saw  that  the  various  producers  of 
the  article,  which  he  wished  to  control,  opposed,  neutralized 
and  wasted  one  another's  energies,  so  that  not  more  than 
half  of  it  ever  accomplished  anything;  that  by  organization, 
through  corporate  knowledge,  the  great  business  of  all  of 
these  producers  could  be  made  to  flow  into  one  channel  and 
thereby  dispense  with  one-half  to  two-thirds  of  the  persons, 
and  from  two-thirds  to  four-fifths  of  the  capital  used  in  the 
business,  and  that  by  this  economy  much  energy  measured 
by  millions  of  dollars  could  be  saved.  The  great  trust,  which 
he  now  manages,  was  organized,  and  applied  the  law  of 
action  from  corporate  knowledge,  instead  of  the  law  of  sup- 
ply and  demand,  to  the  production  of  the  particular  com- 
modity his  trust  handles.  Human  energy  was  mads  to 
follow  the  lines  of  the  expenditure  of  energy  as  determined 
by  corporate  knowledge  and  not  blind  feeling.  The  accu- 
mulation of  untold  millions  is  the  reward  of  this  great  trust ; 
yet  the  commodity  it  produces  and  controls  is  now  cheaper 
to  the  consumer  than  it  could  possibly  be  under  the  old  sys- 
tem of  competition,  the  struggle  for  existence  and  private 
enterprise.  The  difference  to  society  is  that  the  untold 
wealth  made  by  the  trusts,  if  they  were  not  in  existence, 


304      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

would  be  wasted  in  competition,  duplication  of  plants,  and 
partly  distributed  among  the  small  operators  that  would  take 
its  place.  But  the  difference  that  will  be  made  some  day  is 
that  society  will  absorb  these  private  corporations  into  its 
municipal,  county,  state,  national  and  international  corpora- 
tions; then  all  the  profits  made  by  action  from  public  cor- 
porate knowledge  will  go  to  the  benefit  of  society  as  a  whole, 
and  not  a  few,  and  there  will  be  the  same  saving  in  distri- 
bution and  consumption,  through  public  corporations 
controlling  all  commodities,  that  there  now  is  in  production 
and  distribution  as  controlled  by  private  corporations.* 

But  society  itself  in  some  lines  in  the  United  States  has 
availed  itself  of  the  law  of  expending  energy  through  public 
corporate  knowledge.  Take,  for  example,  our  public  school 
system.  Our  public  schools  not  only  save  a  great  deal  of 
energy,  but  accomplish  the  object  of  education  much  more 
efficiently  than  any  system  of  private  schools  ever  devised. 
In  order  to  have  education  as  universal  as  it  now  is  in  the 
United  States,  under  the  old  system  of  private  schools,  it 
would  require  at  least  three  times  as  many  teachers  as  we 
now  have  with  corresponding  expenses  in  other  lines.  The 
saving  is  enormous  and  ought  to  demonstrate  that  the  law  of 
action  from  public  corporate  knowledge,  through  laws  and 
institutions,  can  be  followed  even  as  little  developed  as  the 
race  is  to-day. 

But  this  saving  is  the  very  thing  that  some  persons  fear 
most,  for  they  imagine  if  this  new  law  of  motion  were  fol- 
lowed that  the  economy  secured  would  compel  them  to 
engage  in  other  enterprises  at  great  individual  loss.  This 
argument  has  been  urged  against  all  inventions,  all  labor- 
saving  machinery,  all  progressive  and  ameliorative  institu- 

*"It  may,  perhaps,  be  laid  down  as  a  general  rule  that  when  for  any  class  of 
business  it  becomes  necessary  to  abandon  the  principle  of  freedom  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  enterprises  this  business  should  be  entirely  turned  over  to  the 
government,  either  local,  state  or  federal,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  under- 
taking." Introduction  to  Political  Economy,  p.  82  by  R.  T.  ELY. 


SOCIAL    DYNAMICS  305 

tions,  against  all  reforms  either  moral,  religious  or  social. 
Under  society  by  corporate  knowledge  this  objection  will  be 
perfectly  groundless,  yet  the  fear  of  being  thrown  out  of 
employment  causes  many  persons  to  stand  by  the  old  regime 
of  relentless  competition,  expending  energy  according  to 
blind  feeling,  regardless  of  the  waste  of  energy  entailed. 
What  of  that,  if  it  gives  them  a  living!  There  are  more 
teachers  now  than  ever  before.  The  reason  is  that  when 
the  new  law  of  motion  from  public  corporate  knowledge  is 
introduced  into  any  of  the  departments  of  civilization  con- 
cerned with  moral,  mental  or  social  development  of  the  indi- 
vidual, the  amount  of  that  kind  of  work  to  be  done  is  at 
once  increased  and  becomes  greater  and  greater  as  the  race 
develops;  and  all  the  energy  that  was  formerly  wasted  in 
competition  and  misdirection,  under  the  law  of  expending 
energy  by  corporate  knowledge,  will  be  used  to  the  better- 
ment of  society  as  a  whole,  and  thus  the  betterment  of  the 
individual.  While  the  law  of  action  from  public  corporate 
knowledge  lessens  the  number  of  workers  in  physical  labor 
(for  under  it  only  that  amount  of  physical  labor  will  be 
done  that  is  absolutely  necessary)  it  will  increase  the  num- 
ber of  workers  in  mental,  moral  and  social  labor  hundreds  of 
fold ;  such  labor,  however,  is  always  a  labor  of  love. 

Man's  mind  must  be  turned  from  the  physical  to  the 
mental,  moral  and  social.  As  the  race  creates  all  values, 
there  will  be  no  great  trouble  in  making  mental,  moral  and 
social  values  higher  than  physical.  Such  is  the  case  now 
amongst  the  higher  class  of  minds ;  all  that  is  necessary  to 
complete  the  process  is  to  widen  the  tendency. 

One  of  the  reasons  for  the  enormous  glut  in  the  labor 
market  the  world  over — there  are  untold  millions  unem- 
ployed— is  that  there  is  no  demand  for  anything  but  physical 
values.  When  society  is  once  economically  free,  then  labor 
will  be  directed  into  intellectual,  artistic,  moral  and  social 
channels,  and  we  will  have  a  life  in  which  all  can  be  sue- 


306      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

cessf  ully  employed ;   for  then  all  kinds  of  values  will  pass 
current  in  our  socialization. 

To-day  the  life  of  the  human  race  is  physical,  material- 
istic, worldly ;  under  the  law  of  expenditure  of  energy  from 
public  corporate  knowledge,  it  will  be  mental,  artistic, 
moral  and  social.  To-day  a  human  being  is  an  animal; 
under  the  expenditure  of  energy  by  public  corporate  knowl- 
edge, action  through  consciously  devised  institutions,  he  will 
be  a  social  being,  a  perfect  individual.  Probably  to-day  not 
one  per  cent,  of  the  human  race  reaches  the  height  of 
development  it  is  competent  to  attain,  and  not  even  one 
individual  reaches  anything  like  perfection;  and  in  the 
course  of  history,  through  the  fortuitous  concourse  of  the 
different  currents  of  life,  if  one  individual  does  reach  any- 
thing like  perfection — a  Shakespeare,  for  example — he  is 
thought  to  be  an  anomaly,  a  great  genius ;  yet  such  a  life  is 
within  the  possibilities  of  the  whole  race.  Think  of  the 
unnumbered  geniuses  that  the  race's  unfavorable  reception 
has  dwarfed  into  insignificance!  For  if  the  social  sense  is  not 
correlated  with  the  intellect  of  the  individual,  there  is  lack 
of  harmony  and  lack  of  development,  if  not  degeneration ; 
because  the  individual's  social  environment,  laws  and  insti- 
tutions, methods  of  expending  human  energy,  destroys  indi- 
viduality instead  of  developing  it.  So  long  as  the  race  is 
compelled,  through  mistaken  methods  of  living,  due  to  an 
imperfect  social  sense,  to  devote  the  greater  portion  of  its 
time  to  physical  labor,  owing  to  the  waste  of  physical  pro- 
ducts in  competition,  ignorance,  war,  so  long  will  it  spend 
what  leisure  time  it  has  in  physical  vices  and  follies ;  for  it 
is  only  the  mental  and  moral  laborer  who  enjoys  mental 
and  moral  pleasures.  Mental  and  moral  institutions  to  take 
the  place  of  our  materialistic  life  are  adumbrated  in  our 
institutions  of  learning,  scientific,  artistic,  literary  societies, 
political  and  religious  associations  and  industrial  and  com- 
mercial organizations.  Think  what  a  student  will  do  to 


SOCIAL   DYNAMICS  307 

acquire  a  Ph.  D. ;  what  a  scientist  will  undergo  to  achieve 
distinction  among  his  compeers  by  becoming  a  member  of 
any  of  the  many  great  scientific  societies.*  What  will  a 
French  literary  man  not  do  to  become  a  member  of  the 
French  Academy?  The  buffets  of  a  literary  career  are  more 
severe  than  those  of  fortune,  yet  what  land  has  greater 
patriotism  than  Bohemia?  A  statesman  for  fame  and  power, 
stimulated  through  partisanship,  will  hazard  his  life,  his 
reputation;  while  the  fierce  spirit  of  business  makes  the 
drudgery  of  industrial  life  as  pleasant  as  the  dreams  of 
youth;  and  the  soldier  willingly  jeopardizes  his  life  for  mili- 
tary glory.  The  life  of  the  artist,  the  literary  man,  the 
scientist,  the  social  reformer,  is  a  new  kind  of  existence  inde- 
pendent of  the  awful  struggle  for  existence  we  see  every- 
where in  modern  civilization. 

IV 

It  will  not  be  difficult  for  the  race  to  develop  mental, 

'"The  dunces  wbo  abuse  science,  reproach  it  also  for  having  destroyed  ideals, 
and  having  stolen  from  life  all  of  its  worth.  This  accusation  is  just  as  absurd 
as  the  talk  about  the  bankruptcy  of  science.  A  higher  ideal  than  the  increase 
of  general  knowledge  there  can  not  be.  What  saintly  legend  is  as  beautiful  as 
the  life  of  an  inquirer,  who  spends  his  existence  bending  over  a  microscope, 
almost  without  bodily  want,  known  and  honored  by  few,  working  only  for  his 
conscience'  sake,  without  any  other  ambition  than  that  perhaps  one  little  new 
fact  may  be  established,  which  a  more  fortunate  successor  will  make  use  of  in 
a  brilliant  synthesis,  and  insert  as  a  stone  in  some  monument  of  natural 
science?  What  religious  fable  has  inspired  with  a  contempt  of  death  sublimer 
martyrs  than  Gahlen,  who  sank  down  poisoned  while  preparing  the  arsenious 
hydrogen  which  he  had  discovered ;  or  a  Croce-Spinelli,  who  was  overtaken  by 
death  in  an  over-rapid  ascent  of  his  balloon  while  observing  the  pressure  of  the 
atmosphere;  or  an  Ehrnberg  who  became  blind  over  his  life  work;  or 
a  Hyrtl,  who  almost  entirely  destroyed  his  eyesight  by  his  anatomical 
corrosive  preparations;  or  the  doctors  who  inoculate  themselves  with 
some  deadly  disease— not  to  speak  of  the  innumerable  crowd  of  discover, 
ers  traveling  to  the  North  pole  and  to  the  interior  of  dark  continents?  And 
did  Archimedes  really  feel  his  life  to  be  so  worthless  when  he  entreated  the 
pillage  bands  of  Marcellus,  "Do  not  disturb  my  circles"?  Genuine,  healthy 
poetry  has  always  recognized  this  and  finds  its  most  ideal  characters,  not  in  a 
devotee,  who  murmurs  prayers  with  drivelling  lips,  and  stares  with  distorted 
eyes  at  some  visual  hallucination,  but  in  a  Prometheus  and  a  Faust,  who 
wrestle  for  science,  I.  e.,  exact  knowledge  of  nature."  Degeneration  by  MAX 
NOBDAU,  p.  110. 


308      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

moral  and  social  institutions,  if  we  could  only  for  the  nonce 
get  the  world's  attention  turned  away  from  the  material, 
not  only  the  commercial  and  business  interests,  but  in 
mental,  moral  and  social  departments  of  life,  for  material- 
ism occupies  all  of  life.  Everything  is  measured  by  money. 
Such  institutions  as  that  of  chivalry  show  us  what  men  can 
be  taught  to  love  and  live.  Of  all  the  intrinsically  foolish 
lives  the  individual  has  seen  fit  to  live,  throughout  the 
entire  history  of  the  race,  the  property  conception  of  life 
to-day,  with  its  fierce  gambling  spirit  (being  the  instinct  to 
produce  and  save,  which  the  race's  life  depended  on  in  sav- 
agery, but  which  to-day  shuts  out  the  light  of  literature, 
science,  art,  religion)  is  the  most  pitifully  absurd  to  one 
competent  to  take  a  general  view  of  the  history  of  the  race. 
To-day  the  race,  just  on  the  verge  of  socialization,  is  denied 
it  on  account  of  the  very  instinct  that  made  socialization 
possible  at  all,  the  instinct  to  produce  and  save  wealth. 
But  possibly  just  before  the  discovery  of  the  use  of  iron 
there  arose  some  seer  who  saw  the  possibilities  of  the  race  in 
subduing  all  nature,  if  it  could  overcome  the  difficulty  of 
physical  subsistence,  and  probably  despaired  of  ever  seeing 
it  done ;  but  the  discovery  of  iron  made  the  future  subsist- 
ence of  the  race  a  surety;  or  just  before  written  language 
was  invented,  no  doubt,  some  great  seer  saw  the  climax  that 
human  development  had  reached,  and  the  need  of  written 
language,  and  its  possibilities,  and  despaired  of  ever  realizing 
it,  for  no  great  invention  is  ever  perfected  in  one  age ;  but 
language  was  invented,  and  the  human  race  became  human. 
So  to-day,  we  are  upon  the  verge  of  another  epoch  of  greater 
and  grander  development,  the  democratization  and  socializa- 
tion of  the  race,  and  the  fear  that  we  will  not  realize  this 
acme  of  human  perfection  causes  trepidation  amongst  all  the 
choice  spirits  of  humanity.  But  as  all  the  great  epochs  of 
development  in  the  past  were  crowned  with  success  in  the 
fullness  of  time,  so  will  ours  be  successful. 


SOCIAL    DYNAMICS  309 

When  a  theory  of  things  commensurate  with  human 
aspirations,  a  scientific  social  sense,  is  presented  to  the 
race,  it  will  call  into  new  life  all  the  dormant  religion  of  the 
human  heart,  now  repressed  by  narrow  creeds,  individualistic 
aims  and  lack  of  intellectual  sanction,  and  the  individual 
will  react  to  it  as  inevitably  as  ever  an  oppressed  and 
wearied  world  reacted  to  a  gospel  of  glad  tidings.  Then  a 
social  organization  will  be  produced  by  this  wonderful 
dynamic,  religion,  which  will  conserve  all  the  energies  of  the 
individual  by  directing  them  into  channels  of  greatest  econ- 
omy, and  a  life  be  realized  limited  only  by  the  possibilities 
of  the  matter  and  energies  of  nature. 

Owing  to  the  narrowness  of  our  theological  social  sense 
we  underconceive  everything,  but  nothing  more  so  than  the 
inherent  potency  of  matter  and  energy  to  originate  the  high- 
est forms  of  organization.  It  will  be  scientifically  demon- 
strated some  time  or  other  in  the  future  that  every  star  in  the 
depths  of  space  is  a  solar  system,  which  at  some  time  or  other 
of  its  existence  is  destined  to  be  the  home  of  intelligent  beings. 
It  is  just  as  natural  for  matter  and  energy  to  develop  into 
animals,  men,  and  human  society  as  it  is  for  it  to  develop 
elements,  chemical  compounds  and  plants ;  and  but  for  our 
erroneous  theological  social  sense,  we  would  see  it  at  once. 
There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  some  of  the  planets  of 
our  solar  system  are  now  inhabited  by  intelligent  beings,  and 
that  the  others  will  be  as  the  elements  and  energies  abate  in 
intensity  during  the  cycle  of  the  universal  process.  In  the 
case  of  Mars  the  great  canals  discovered  by  Schiaparelli  are 
evidence  that  the  Martians  have  reached  a  degree  of  social 
development  at  which  they  have  made  the  entire  planet 
habitable  by  an  equalization  of  temperature.  This  will  be 
the  condition  of  the  earth  when  it  is  controlled  by  a  social 
organism,  guided  by  a  verifiable  social  sense,  and  bound 
together  by  a  religion  based  on  scientific  morality.  The 
condition  of  the  other  planets  of  our  solar  system  is  not  so 


310      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

easily  determined.  It  is  possible,  iu  the  case  of  Jupiter, 
owing  to  the  largeness  of  its  size,  cooling  more  slowly  than 
the  other  planets,  that  it  is  not  habitable  by  intelligent 
beings  now,  but  what  a  wonderful  home  it  will  be  some  day 
for  the  intelligent  beings  that  will  inevitably  be  evolved 
there !  It  is  also  possible  that  some  of  the  outer  planets  of 
our  solar  system  have  passed  through  their  stage  of  pro- 
ducing intelligent  beings  and  are  now,  like  our  moon,  inca- 
pable of  life  or  civilization. 

The  time  will  come  when  our  race  will  devise  methods  of 
communicating  with  other  planets  and  other  solar  systems. 
The  universe  is  inhabited  and  nothing  but  our  petty  theo- 
logical social  sense  could  ever  make  man  believe  that  all  the 
starry  hosts  were  made  to  light  his  steps  by  night,  the 
glorious  sun  to  light  his  work  by  day.  That  the  race  may 
ultimately  gain  a  conception  of  the  infinite  universe  itself  is 
among  the  grand  possibilities  of  the  future.  That  a  great 
scientist  like  Alfred  Eussell  Wallace  should  think  that  our 
insignificant  earth  is  the  center  of  the  whole  universe,  shows 
how  the  theological  social  sense  returns  in  old  age  to  destroy 
the  work  of  one's  matured  manhood.  It  is  a  sad  fact  indeed, 
and  is  one  of  the  great  causes  of  the  slowness  of  human 
progress.  The  great  Newton  spent  his  last  days  writing  a 
commentary  on  the  Book  of  Daniel ! 

The  belief  in  an  omnipotent  God  is  an  unconscious 
prophecy  of  what  oriented,  democratized  and  socialized 
humanity  will  be  and  will  accomplish.  It  will  be  omnipo- 
'4tent,  supernatural  and  omnipresent!  Some  day  humanity 
.will  be  a  god,  not  for  the  purpose  of  being  worshiped,  but  a 
god  in  power,  a  god  in  love,  a  god  in  sympathy,  a  god  in 
intelligence.  Every  human  being  on  earth  will  be  a  conscious 
unit  in  the  social  organism,  and  the  power  of  society  will  be 
so  great  that  it  may  be  able,  not  only  to  determine  geological 
phenomena,  but  also  astronomical.  The  universe  may  yet 
be  destined  to  undergo  changes  at  the  combined  efforts  of  its 


SOCIAL   DYNAMICS  311 

intelligent  beings.  "When  mind  really  controls  the  universe, 
the  solar  system  and  the  earth,  if  ever,  they  will  be  vastly 
different  from  what  they  are  to-day.  The  improvements 
that  unified  and  socialized  humanity  will  make  in  the  earth 
will  cause  it  to  be  another  planet,  a  veritable  paradise  from 
what  it  is  to-day,  fresh  from  the  blind  battling  of  natural 
energies  uncontrolled  by  intelligence. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

THE   GOD   AND   IMMORTALITY   HYPOTHESIS;   THE  THEOLOG- 
ICAL  SOCIAL   SENSE. 


The  generic  misconception  in  understanding  the  universe 
is  man's  misconception  of  matter,  as  being  dead,  inert  mass, 
when  in  fact  it  contains  within  itself  the  factors  of  every- 
thing we  see.  As  the  savage,  on  account  of  his  ignorance, 
could  not  conceive  how  the  north  wind  blew  without  Boreas 
behind  it,  or  how  the  thunderbolt  shot  without  Jove  back  of 
it,  so  civilized  man  must  put  God  behind  what  he  cannot 
understand ;  yet,  from  time  immemorial,  man  has  done  away 
with  his  gods  one  at  a  time  by  discovering  that  what  required 
a  God  for  its  explanation  could  be  accounted  for  naturally ; 
that  instead  of  God  being  back  of  some  given  phenomenon, 
it  was  caused  by  something  altogether  different.  If  every 
cause  requires  a  cause,  then  what  is  the  cause  of  the  First 
Cause?  Can't  you  see  that  this  is  but  the  East  Indian's 
explanation  of  the  support  of  the  earth,  that  it  rested  on 
the  back  of  an  elephant,  which  rested  on  the  back  of  a  turtle, 
and  then  ceased  answering  any  more  questions? 

The  primitive  concept  of  things,  that  they  are  created  and 
maintained  by  a  god,  is  totally  erroneous.  The  problems  of 
existence  are  not  solved  by  putting  the  function  of  God 
more  and  more  into  the  background,  into  the  realm  of  the 
mysterious,  the  metaphysical ;  but  when  the  hypothesis  of 
God  ceases  to  explain  the  facts  to  reject  it  altogether.  The 
race  may  as  well  give  up  God  and  acknowledge  it,  as  to 
really  give  Him  up  as  we  have  done  to-day,  yet  pretend  not 

312 


THE  GOD  AND  IMMORTALITY  HYPOTHESIS  313 

to  do  so,  for  nothing  is  gained  by  burying  our  heads,  ostrich- 
like,  in  ignorance,  moral  cowardice  and  hypocrisy.  If  there 
is  a  God  anywhere  to  flustrate  nature  at  any  moment,  there 
can  be  no  science.  Science  is  based  on  the  theory  of  things 
— that  everything  in  the  universe  is  subject  to  law.  It 
reduces  everything  to  efficient  causes,  bases  everything  on 
facts.  There  can  be  no  God  if  science  is  true,  and  no 
science  if  there  is  a  God.  Omar,  when  he  burned  the  Alex- 
andrian library,  was  perfectly  logical.  He  said:  "If  these 
books  contain  the  same  doctrine  as  the  Koran,  they  cannot 
be  of  any  use,  since  the  Koran  contains  all  necessary  truth ; 
but  if  they  contain  anything  contrary  to  it,  they  ought  to 
be  destroyed ;  and,  therefore,  whatever  they  contain,  I  order 
them  burnt."  If  theology  is  true,  science  is  foolishness. 
Admit  the  claims  of  science,  and  theology  goes;  but  not 
religion,  for  it  is  based,  not  on  theology,  but  on  morality, 
the  relation  that  the  individual  sustains  to  society.  Society 
is  the  supreme  authority  in  morality,  not  God. 

If  there  is  no  God,  why  not  say  so?  If  this  primitive 
theory  of  things  is  false,  why  not  tell  the  truth  about  it? 
Thousands  of  years  ago  the  writer  of  the  Book  of  Job  said : 
4 '  Canst  thou  by  searching  find  out  God?"  Is  it  not  wonderful 
that  this  question  has  never  been  answered  in  the  affirmative? 
Is  it  not  passing  strange  that  a  being  so  believed  in,  so 
worshiped,  cannot  be  found?  As  important  to  man  as  God  is, 
there  should  be  no  doubt  about  His  existence.  Really  the  first 
condition  of  a  God's  being  useful  is  to  have  Him  perfectly 
believed  in ;  and  how  can  one  believe  in  a  God  and  not  know 
positively  He  is  in  existence?  If  there  is  a  God,  His  exist- 
ence could  readily  be  established  by  any  one  of  many  tests, 
but  none  have  ever  been  able  to  prove  His  existence.  Why 
does  not  the  church  have  a  test  case,  as  did  Elijah  of  old, 
when  he  demonstrated  the  superiority  of  Jehovah  over  Baal? 
The  existence  of  God,  no  matter  how  important,  is  left  to 
faith.  The  theologian  says:  "The  ways  of  God  are  mys-. 


314      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

terious.  Though  he  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  him."  Such 
a  spirit  accomplishes  nothing  in  the  twentieth  century.  It 
is  well  to  cling  to  principle,  though  it  slay  one — that  is  relig- 
ion ;  but  instead  of  dying  to  prove  the  existence  of  a  fact,  it 
would  be  better  to  look  and  see  if  it  exists.  One's  death 
proves  nothing.  Facts  are  proved  by  observation,  experi- 
mentation, comparison  and  verification,  not  by  sacrifice.  If 
God  stands  allegorically  for  the  race,  then  the  psalmist  is 
right.  Though  the  race  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  it;  because 
persecution  for  righteousness'  sake  arouses  the  instinct  of 
religion,  and  one  ceases  to  be  an  individual  and  blindly  sac- 
rifices his  life  for  humanity. 

The  sacreduess  of  God  comes  from  the  sacredness  of  the 
human  tribe.  All  gods  are  heroes  or  the  worship  of  the 
elements  personified.  The  object  of  all  religion  is  primarily 
to  protect  the  tribe  by  invoking  the  ancestor  and  worshiping 
the  elements,  thus  binding  the  tribe  together.  It  is  all 
blind,  as  all  instincts  are  blind. 

Religion  with  the  advent  of  Christianity  lost  its  primitive 
tribal  function  directly  and  performed  it  indirectly  by  pro- 
tecting the  tribe  through  the  individual.  It  became  a  God- 
worship  in  truth  and  in  fact.  Instead  of  ^aiming  directly  at 
the  salvation  of  the  tribe,  it  aimed  directly  at  the  salvation 
of  the  individual,  and  thus  saved  the  tribe,  the  nation,  the 
race.  This  change  in  religion  was  natural.  The  tribe  had 
grown  to  be  a  great  nation,  and  a  constant  menace  to  the 
tribe  did  not  exist;  and  to  give  religion  an  individualistic 
turn,  by  making  the  individual  owe  allegiance  to  an  ideal 
God,  bound  the  whole  nation  together  as  the  primitive 
ancestor  worship  bound  the  primitive  tribe  together.  But 
the  old  tribal  form  of  religion  is  still  strong  within  us.  How 
quickly  do  all  attempts  upon  the  life  of  the  state  meet  with 
enthusiastic,  not  to  say  fanatical,  opposition.  How  intensely 
are  all  reforms  of  the  state  and  church  opposed.  Relig- 
ion is  still  a  blind  instinct,  and  all  efforts  to  understand  it 


THE  GOD  AND  IMMORTALITY  HYPOTHESIS  315 

scientifically  are  resented  as  sacrilege  and  meet  with  anath- 
ema ;  yet  such  a  reform  to  our  age  will  be  no  greater  than 
was  that  of  Socrates  or  Jesus  to  his. 

The  sacredness  of  God  comes  from  man's  moral  sense,  the 
moral  sense  being  due,  not  only  to  living  humanity,  but  to 
dead  humanity;  God  being  some  dead  hero  deified,  which 
the  individual  still  believes  lives  as  a  God  to  punish  him,  as 
a  living  king  could  punish  him  if  he  knew  of  his  disobe- 
dience to  the  race.  In  fact,  to-day  the  moral  sense  is  still 
developed  by  appeals  to  the  imaginary  world  of  gods.  But 
let  the  race  once  see  that  the  moral  sense  can  be  best  devel- 
oped by  living  humanity  through  punishment  and  reward, 
then  it  will  discard  its  belief  in  imaginary  deities,  as  it  has 
the  rest  of  its  primitive  beliefs  which  were  thought  to  be 
equally  potent  in  their  day— oracles,  dreams  and  signs. 

There  are  many  important  conceptions  of  God  that  can  be 
appropriately  interpreted  by  substituting  the  moral  sense  as 
created  by  humanity  in  their  stead.  The  same  Book  of  Job 
says:  "The  fool  has  said  in  his  heart  there  is  no  God!" 
This  means  that  whoever  denies  the  reality  of  the  moral 
sense;  whoever  says  that  there  is  no  retribution  for  one's 
sins,  is  a  fool.  Npw  if  society  did  not  furnish  this  retribution 
by  placing  in  one  a  conscience  to  condemn  one,  indeed  there 
would  be  no  God,  and  sometimes  this  occurs  even  to-day ; 
but  no  matter  whether  the  fool  says  there  is  no  God,  and 
knows  there  is  no  God,  as  many  of  them  do  to-day,  never- 
theless, society  within  one,  in  the  form  of  conscience,  acts  as 
a  God  and  brings  every  one  to  an  account.  Every  notion  of 
God  can  be  traced  to  its  development  in  society,  living  and 
dead,  the  real  world  about  us,  the  imaginary  world  of  our 
deified  ancestors,  whence  sprang  all  the  gods.  God  is  an 
allegory  of  the  real  facts  of  social  life 

The  belief  in  God  reaches  its  priceless  value  by  being  asso- 
ciated with  religion,  the  average  person  believing  them  to  be 
inseparable.  If  traced  generically  to  its  source,  it  will  be 


316      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

found  that  the  emotion  of  religion  is  invariably  produced  by 
an  act,  a  belief,  or  a  feeling  that  subordinates  the  individual 
to  society,  often  sacrificing  him  to  it  completely ;  and  when 
this  is  consciously  known,  then  religion  will  become  differ- 
entiated from  the  mass  of  superstition  surrounding  it,  beliefs 
in  gods,  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  be  consciously  pro- 
duced as  any  other  emotion  by  its  proper  stimuli. 

The  God  and  immortality  hypothesis  of  the  universe,  as  a 
social  sense,  should  be  discarded,  for  it  is  now  tacitly  dis- 
believed by  all  enlightened  persons.  It  is  not  fair  to  the 
great  mass  of  humanity,  which  unaided  is  incapable  of  arriv- 
ing at  a  true  social  sense,  to  be  taught  these  old  myths,  and 
thus  live  a  misconceived  life.  It  is  not  fair  to  posterity  that 
we  interpret  these  myths  in  the  terms  of  our  truest  thought. 
The  question  is  not  to  be  settled  in  maudlin,  cowardly  senti- 
mentality, which  urges,  even  if  the  belief  in  God  and  immor- 
tality is  not  true,  that  it  does  not  matter  to  the  masses 
whether  they  know  the  truth  or  not ;  that  it  is  such  a  joy  to 
them  to  believe  in  a  beneficent  God  and  an  everlasting  life, 
that  whether  false  or  true  the  belief  should  stand.  No  doubt 
there  is  much  joy  in  these  beliefs;  but  think  of  the  horror  in 
the  opposite  beliefs  of  a  personal  devil  and  an  everlasting  hell ! 
All  the  joys  of  a  beneficent  God  and  an  everlasting  life  pale 
into  insignificance  beside  the  sublime  horrors  of  an  everlast- 
ing burning  hell  and  a  personal  devil,  who  goes  about  like  a 
roaring  lion  seeking  whom  he  may  devour!  That  there  is 
anything  gained  in  believing  a  falsehood  after  the  truth  is 
known  is  absolutely  false.  It  is  through  the  truth  that 
humanity  adapts  itself  to  nature,  and  it  is  through  the  truth 
that  the  individuals  of  society  adjust  themselves  to  society, 
forming  a  perfect  social  organism;  and  if  falsehood  be 
allowed  to  take  the  place  of  the  truth,  only  maladjustment 
and  misery  can  result. 

I  define  the  truth  as  the  most  perfect  correspondence 
that  can  exist  between  the  mind  of  man  and  external  nature, 


THE  GOD  AND  IMMORTALITY  HYPOTHESIS  317 

and  between  the  moral  and  social  senses  and  society;  and 
the  truth  is  known  by  rigid  verification  through  obser- 
vation, comparison  and  experimentation.  If  the  human 
mind  is  dominated  by  fundamental  errors,  such  as  a  belief 
in  God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  man  can  never 
know  what  nature  really  is  or  adapt  himself  to  it,  or 
form  a  perfect  society  and  adjust  himself  to  it;  for  by 
adopting  these  beliefs  he  is  using  this  life  as  a  preparation  for 
one  to  come  that  has  no  existence,  instead  of  using  this  lifo 
as  an  end  in  itself  to  be  lived  for  itself.  A  perfect  social 
sense,  discarding  the  beliefs  in  God  and  the  immortality  of 
the  soul,  will  adjust  man  to  society  as  perfectly  as  the  intel- 
lect adapts  him  to  nature.  The  adjustment  of  the  indi- 
vidual to  nature  by  the  intellect  differs  from  the  adjustment 
of  the  individual  to  society  by  the  social  sense  in  this,  that 
the  intellect  in  the  form  of  instinct  manifests  itself  inde- 
pendent of  experience,  whereas  the  social  sense  is  exclusively 
a  product  of  experience,  education  and  living  in  society. 
Again,  the  intellect  in  the  form  of  education  adjusts  the 
individual  to  nature  consciously,  whereas  the  moral  sense 
adjusts  the  individual  to  society  blindly.  But  the  progress 
the  race  will  make  when  the  individual  is  able  consciously 
to  adjust  himself  to  the  race,  through  the  moral  and  social 
senses,  will  be  incalculable,  and  humanity  will  become  a 
social  organism,  run  by  conscious  intelligence  instead  of  by 
blind  instincts,  as  to-day. 

If  the  Western  nations  could  free  themselves  from  a  belief 
in  God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  a  belief  in  the  devil 
and  everlasting  hell  (for  we  should  take  the  bad  of  theology 
with  the  good,  and  not  as  modern  hypocrisy  attempts  to  do, 
hold  on  to  God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  leave 
the  devil  and  everlasting  hell  with  other  outgrown  super- 
stitions)— then  they  would  really  know  that  the  factors  in 
the  phenomena  of  nature  and  society  are  not  due  to  some 
unknown  God,  but  to  natural  and  determinable  human  ener- 


318      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

gies  which  can  be  known  and  understood  and  directed  as 
natural  physical  energies  by  laws  and  institutions  invented 
by  man  for  universal  human  welfare.  Man's  life  should  be 
made  up  of  the  living  of  this  life  for  all  it  is  worth.  Life  is 
not  looked  after  by  God,  but  is  a  result  of  human  instincts, 
of  human  knowledge  and  human  emotion.  The  moral  and 
social  senses  should  be  consciously  developed  in  each  indi- 
vidual as  the  intellect  now  is  developed.  The  moral  and 
social  senses  and  not  God  will  be  the  salvation  of  the  race. 
All  the  love  and  respect  that  man  now  bestows  on  an  imag- 
inary God  can  be  readily  transferred  to  living  humanity 
about  us.  All  the  glories  of  immortality  can  be  realized 
here  on  earth. 

II 

If  there  was  a  God,  would  we  see  the  cruelty,  the 
bestiality  among  men  that  we  now  see?  Would  the  assas- 
sin's hand  not  be  staid?  Would  not  the  drunkard's  career 
be  stopped?  Would  the  insane  be  allowed  to  kill  their  victims? 
Would  the  treacherous  friend  be  permitted  to  alienate  the 
affections  of  the  wife  and  accomplish  her  ruin?  Would  not 
innocence  be  protected  from  vice  and  sin,  and  not  be  led 
astray  to  depths  of  degradation  unspeakable,  as  a  lamb  to 
the  slaughter?  Would  an  all-powerful  beneficent  God  per- 
mit this?  Would  He  build  a  world  in  which  it  could  occur? 
Would  a  just  God  let  men's  hearts  be  so  hard,  their  love  of 
greed  so  ruthless,  their  thirst  for  power  so  violent,  their 
hunger  for  success  so  unscrupulous?  Never  do  we  see  the 
hand  of  God!  Where  is  the  divinity  in  the  insatiableness 
of  man's  animal  passion?  How  kindlier  has  nature  been  to 
the  elephant !  No  harassing  passion  year  in  and  year  out, 
but  at  an  opportune  time,  then  its  brief  day  and  rest.  The 
stern  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  fixed  this  yoke  upon 
mankind,  not  in  malevolence,  but  necessity.  The  mam- 
moth pachyderm  can  better  perpetuate  its  kind  under  an 


THE  GOD  AND  IMMORTALITY  HYPOTHESIS  319 

intermittent  passion,  man  under  a  constant  one.  No  God  is 
responsible,  but  necessity. 

Think  of  the  horrible  accidents  that  could  have  been 
averted  by  a  sign,  a  token,  a  word?  If  there  is  a  God,  He 
never  interferes  in  the  affairs  of  men.  He  has  set  the  world 
to  going  and  has  gone  away  and  forgotten  it.  No  matter 
the  prayers !  No  matter  the  sacrifice !  Jesus  on  the  cross ! 
Socrates  in  the  prison  cell !  Our  God  has  deserted  us !  Is  it 
not  a  kindlier  theory  to  think  that  there  never  was  a 
God  than  to  think  He  is  not  so  good  and  true  and  beautiful 
as  poor  struggling  and  hoping  humanity? 

Look  at  the  nations  of  the  earth  in  their  various  careers. 
What  did  Babylon,  Nineveh,  Egypt,  Greece,  Rome  do  that 
they  should  perish  like  the  great  animals  and  plants  before 
man  was  evolved?  Why  should  the  Jews,  the  chosen  people 
of  God,  be  scattered  over  the  world?  Why  should  Poland 
be  dismembered?  What  merit  has  England  that  she  should 
own  the  earth?  For  originating,  even  in  this  civilized  age, 
her  strenuous  game,  the  man  hunt,  in  which  poor  weapon- 
less savages  are  shot  down  in  sport.  How  nobly  has  her  great 
philosopher  Herbert  Spencer  taken  her  to  task  in  his  Prin- 
ciples of  Ethics!  Did  ever  a  people  pray  more  fervently  than 
did  the  South  African  Boers,  and  yet  God  let  them  be  con- 
quered by  the  most  ungodly  nation  on  the  earth.  The 
United  States  started  on  a  career  of  liberty  for  humanity  in 
liberating  Cuba,  yet  day  by  day  she  is  being  deflected  from 
her  noble  course  by  the  commercialism  and  materialism  of 
capital,  until  in  her  control  of  the  Philippines  to-day  moral 
ideas  are  of  no  avail  unless  in  accord  with  the  accumulation 
of  property.  Is  all  of  this  God's  will  and  wish?  Where  is 
the  hand  of  God  helping  the  weak,  restraining  the  strong? 
Did  our  God  ever  come  down  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  with 
His  hand  sweep  away  the  hosts  of  tyrants  who  were  oppress- 
ing patriots  fighting  for  liberty,  for  home,  for  fireside? 
Never!  Ruthlessly  the  victor  tramples  the  helpless  victim 


320       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

to  death.  Starving  women  and  children,  the  aged  and  the 
wounded,  perish  unhelped.  God's  hand  is  nowhere  seen, 
yet  never  did  more  fervent  prayer  ascend.  There  is  no  God 
in  the  affairs  of  men  or  in  the  destiny  of  nations. 

Where  do  we  see  God  in  the  long  history  of  humanity? 
In  the  stone  age,  the  bronze  age,  the  iron  age?  Did  God 
give  man  the  use  of  fire?  Did  he  show  our  savage  ancestors 
how  to  smelt  iron?  Did  God  teach  man  to  talk  and  think? 
Did  God  show  man  the  importance  of  property?  Did  He 
invent  marriage?  Who  was  it  who  taught  man  that  in  order 
that  property  might  become  fully  developed,  at  first,  it 
should  be  made  individual  instead  of  communal,  now  social 
instead  of  individual,  was  it  God?  Did  God  invent  religion, 
or  did  man,  in  the  infancy  of  the  race  from  sheer  necessity, 
develop  the  instinct  to  protect  the  tribe,  and  in  the  struggle 
for  existence  between  tribe  and  tribe,  perfect  it  until  we  see 
religion  to-day  unifying  and  making  the  race  one  vast 
organism,  greater  and  stronger  and  better  than  a  belief  in 
God  ever  created?  There  is  no  sign  of  God  in  any  of  these 
devious  evolutions  of  arts  and  institutions.  Is  it  to  Klies- 
thenes  and  Servius  Tullius  or  to  God  that  we  owe  civil  gov- 
ernment? Where  did  God  teach  man  anything?  Moses 
simply  codified  the  laws  he  learned  from  the  Egyptians. 
Was  it  not  the  necessity  of  the  conditions  confronting  the 
human  race  from  its  beginning  up  to  date  that  gave  rise  to 
all  we  are  and  caused  man  himself  to  originate  his  arts, 
institutions  and  knowledge  in  the  past  just  as  he  does 
to-day?  God  had  nothing  to  do  with  it.  God  himself  is  an 
invention  of  man. 

If  there  is  a  God,  why  does  not  He  reveal  Himself  to  us  in 
terms  so  clear  that  no  one  can  mistake  the  evidence?  What 
good  can  be  attained  by  ever  retreating  into  mystery  and 
ignorance.  And  if  God  did  once  reveal  Himself  to  mankind, 
why  did  He  not  make  His  revelation  so  perfect  that  there 
could  be  no  mistaking  it  as  divine?  The  imperfections  of 


THE  GOD  AND  IMMORTALITY  HYPOTHESIS  331 

the  revelations  of  the  Bible  show  their  human  origin. 
Higher  criticism  has  shown  the  Bible  to  be  of  purely  human 
origin,  and  that  God  had  nothing  to  do  with  it ;  but  the 
critics  will  not  speak  out  any  more  than  the  Greek  and 
Eoman  scholars  would  expose  the  gods  of  their  country. 

Either  God  deceives  all  nations  and  peoples,  else  He  has 
revealed  Himself  to  all  in  contradictory  terms,  or  has  been 
partial  in  His  revelation.  One  consultation  with  the  scien- 
tists, statesmen,  artists  and  business  men  of  the  world  would 
settle  the  matter  forever.  He  could  call  a  convention  any 
place.  We  would  all  be  there.  He  could  outline  the 
eternal  principle  of  things,  and  we  would  no  longer  live  in 
doubt,  fear  and  uncertainty.  There  is  no  God,  else  He 
would  not  conceal  Himself  more  perfectly  than  the  utmost 
secrets  of  the  universe. 

And  if  man  is  immortal,  why  not  give  him  the  evidence 
of  it?  The  return  of  one  person  from  the  other  world  who 
would  tell  us  what  immortality  is,  not  in  a  darkened  room, 
but  in  the  broad  daylight  of  open  space,  would  settle  the 
question  for  all  time.  Let  him  talk  to  them  who  knew  him, 
as  Jesus  did  to  His  disciples  after  the  resurrection.  One 
such  case  to-day  with  our  scientific  safeguards  would  be  suffi- 
cient. But  God  could  give  us  many,  and  why  not?  Because 
the  soul  is  no  more  immortal  than  anything  else,  and  nothing 
is  immortal  but  the  elements  and  energies  of  primitive  nature. 

To  primitive  consciousness,  back  of  every  phenomenon,  is 
a  God.  As  man  learns,  he  dispenses  with  his  gods,  until 
the  time  conies  when  he  traces  the  facts  that  give  rise  to  the 
God-idea  to  society,  and  thus  dispenses  with  all  help  from 
an  ideal  God  to  explain  the  phenomena  of  nature.  God,  like 
Jove,  Jehovah,  Mars,  is  one  of  humanity's  primitive  gods. 
The  word  God  is  derived  from  Woden,  Wod,  God.  But 
how  reluctantly  do  men  give  up  their  theological  beliefs. 
Long  after  they  have  ceased  to  believe  in  the  God-hypothesis 
of  the  universe,  they  still  use  the  word  in  some  figurative  sense. 


322      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

Spencer  calls  God  the  Unknowable.  The  great  pagan,  Rob- 
ert G.  Ingersoll,  called  God  the  Power  back  of  things.  Hegel 
called  Him  the  Absolute.  Sir  William  Hamilton  called 
Him  the  Unconditioned ;  Plato  called  God  Logos,  and  so  on. 
Readers  must  not  have  their  feelings  hurt  by  not  having 
God  come  in  in  some  place.  There  are  few  scientists  but  use 
the  word;  however,  it  is  always  in  some  department  of  science 
they  know  nothing  about.  None  accept  the  God-hypothe- 
sis and  reason  from  it ;  for  that  would  upset  all  science. 

Why  not  say  what  one  thinks?  Is  there  anything  gained 
by  treating  humanity  as  we  treat  children,  deeming  them 
not  old  enough  to  understand  all  kinds  of  knowledge, 
keeping  them  in  the  dark  until  they  find  out  knowledge 
in  error  and  sin?  The  very  life  of  the  race  depends 
upon  the  telling  of  the  truth;  for  there  is  no  other  way 
under  the  snn  to  adjust  humanity  to  its  environment 
except  by  the  truth.  All  the  nations  of  antiquity  went 
down  to  destruction  simply  because  they  were  not  able  to 
adjust  themselves  to  their  environment;  they  could  not 
give  up  their  erroneous  beliefs.  It  has  been  simply  a  matter 
of  knowledge.  Each  nation,  as  it  lived  in  history,  took 
what  its  predecessor  left,  and  lived  as  best  it  could.  Those 
who  have  lived  the  most  nearly  to  the  truth  have  lasted  the 
longest.  Our  fate  is  before  us.  It  is  either  scientific  truth 
or  destruction.  Take  your  choice. 

But  the  punishment  heretofore  meted  out  to  anyone  who 
dared  to  tell  the  truth  about  God  and  immortality  was  so 
severe,  so  disgraceful,  so  painful — oblivion,  death,  obloquy — 
that  no  wonder  men  held  their  peace!  Think  of  the  horror 
that  Jesus  must  have  felt  while  on  the  cross !  No  wonder 
He  cried  out:  "My  God!  My  God!  Why  hast  thou  forsaken 
me!"  The  despair  of  that  cry!  The  shame  of  the  death, 
the  same  as  on  the  gallows  to-day !  Oh,  what  a  price  He 
paid  for  speaking  the  truth  as  He  saw  it !  And  how  many 
are  there  since  His  day  who  have  not  been  so  fortunate  as  to 


THE  GOD  AND  IMMORTALITY  HYPOTHESIS  323 

have  history  right  them  in  the  eyes  of  posterity,  but  stand 
as  malefactors,  traitors,  criminals  to  the  race,  when  in  fact 
they,  too,  were  saviors?  No  wonder  that  our  great  men  are 
time-servers,  hypocrites,  pharisees,  moral  cowards!  We 
begin  pledged  to  speak  the  truth  fully,  freely,  heart-deep ; 
but  for  the  sake  of  wealth,  position,  fame,  we  compromise, 
clothe  the  truth  in  orthodox  language,  live  respected,  hold 
professorships,  offices,  sinecures!  What  a  price  Schopen- 
hauer paid  to  speak  so  all  posterity  would  hear  him!  What 
a  price  did  Comte  pay  for  founding  the  science  of  sociology, 
the  science  of  human  salvation !  And  all  who-  expect  to  live 
in  what  they  write  must  be  equally  fearless,  equally  cou- 
rageous, equally  truthful,  equally  free!  And  let  come  what 
will,  abide  the  issue! 

The  scholars  of  the  world  from  time  immemorial,  the 
scientists,  artists,  literary  men,  business  men  and  statesmen  of 
the  world  have  held  the  God  and  immortality  hypothesis  only 
as  a  matter  of  policy.  They  speak  by  implication ;  besides, 
it  is  so  much  easier  to  exploit  the  ignorance  of  humanity 
than  to  suffer  ostracism  by  advocating  the  true  theory  of 
things.  To  a  mind  that  has  any  logic  about  it,  it  takes  no 
great  reasoning  to  show  it  that  modern  science  is  directly 
opposed  to  the  God  and  immortality  hypothesis.  The  mod- 
ern state  is  based  upon  the  theory  that  theocracy  is  false. 
Governments  are  based  upon  the  real  world  and  not  upon 
the  imaginary  world.  Modern  civilization  has  really 
rejected  the  God  and  immortality  hypothesis,  and  pays 
homage  to  God  by  lip-service  only.  Civilization  is  really  a 
gigantic  system  of  hypocrisy.  The  best  Christians  do  not 
begin  to  compare  with  the  best  stoics  during  the  Roman 
Republic.  Christianity  has  sunk  deeper  into  disrepute 
and  contempt  than  paganism  at  Christianity's  advent.  As 
the  ancient  Roman  paid  his  respects  to  the  gods  to  set  an 
example  for  the  populace,  so  do  the  professions  and  classes 
to-day;  for  what  care  they  for  the  truth,  so  they  get  an  easy 


324      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

living  out  of  humanity?  The  church  has  no  power,  is  satis- 
fied simply  with  feeding  her  great  mass  of  incompetent  and 
ignorant  priests  and  preachers.  No  able  man  ever  stays  in 
the  church  now  except  by  chance;  then  he  tries  to  read  into 
her  old  dogmas  the  truth  that  is  to  take  their  place.  True 
religion  finds  no  home  in  the  church  except  by  accident. 
The  great  religious  hearts  of  humanity  to-day,  feeling  that 
Christianity  is  a  failure,  are  striving  blindly  to  alleviate  the 
ills  of  humanity  without  any  consciously  thought  out 
philosophy,  in  countless  reforms,  social  settlements,  philan- 
thropy, socialism,  some  trying  to  drag  the  church  along  with 
them ;  but  the  church  itself  is  the  first  to  cry  out  against 
any  real  change  in  the  existing  evils,  the  first  to  detect 
progress  and  to  denounce  it.  The  church  knows  how  to 
preserve  existing  institutions,  the  primal  function  of  relig- 
ion; but  knows  nothing  of  the  perfection  of  humanity 
through  knowledge,  the  cardinal  function  of  religion 
to-day.  Why  should  a  Christian  care  to  see  a  perfect  sys- 
tem of  life  here  on  earth  when  the  fundamental  doctrine  of 
Christianity  is  a  perfect  life  beyond  the  grave  to  compensate 
for  the  evils  of  the  one  here?  No  good  can  come  of  the 
church  so  long  as  it  is  hampered  by  the  erroneous  doctrine 
of  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 

All  the  great  hopes,  aspirations,  inspirations  and  longings  of 
the  human  heart  have  been  aroused  by  the  possibilities  of  mat- 
ter and  energy,  and  are  capable  of  realization  here  on  earth. 
Heaven  is  a  belief  that  cheats  us  out  of  our  birthright,  and 
gives  us  a  shadow  for  the  real  thing.  The  perfect  state  can 
and  will  be  realized  here  on  earth  and  not  some  place  else. 
The  dreams  and  imaginings  of  our  fathers,  of  the  poets  and 
the  prophets  in  all  ages,  are  destined  to  come  true  in  our 
own  lives.  Heaven  is  the  future  home  of  the  race  here  on 
earth,  when  it  is  controlled  by  the  moral  and  social  senses; 
and  the  power  of  God  is  a  prophecy  and  an  allegory  of  what 
the  power  of  socialized  humanity  will  be.  This  is  what  the 


THE  GOD  AND  IMMORTALITY  HYPOTHESIS  325 

great    allegory  of   God  and  immortality   means.      Let   us 
accept  the  truth.     The  age  is  ripe  for  the  change. 

The  Dark  Ages  are  attributive  to  the  teachings  of  Chris- 
tianity that  this  life  is  naught  but  a  preparation  for  a  life  to 
come  expressed  in  countless  tenets  which  destroyed  the 
instinct  to  originate  property,  such  as,  "Take  no  thought  of 
the  morrow,"  "Sell  what  thou  hast  and  give  to  the  poor," 
"How  hard  shall  it  be  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,"  and  countless  others,  all  expressing  contempt 
for  this  life,  some  going  so  far  as  to  teach  that  those  present 
would  live  to  see  the  end  of  the  world.  Such  beliefs,  if  uni- 
versal, would  destroy  all  civilization.  It  was  the  general 
belief  of  all  Christendom  that  the  world  would  terminate  at 
the  end  of  the  first  thousand  years  of  the  Christian  dispensa- 
tion. Such  doctrines  destroyed  the  primal  incentive  to  pro- 
duce, to  accumulate;  and  if  all  of  our  hopes,  aspirations, 
longings  are  to  be  achieved  in  heaven,  what  is  the  use  of 
exertion  here?  After  these  doctrines  became  universal,  as 
a  result,  the  Dark  Ages  followed;  and  but  ior  the  Crusades, 
which  killed  off  all  of  the  most  fanatical  believers  and  awak- 
ened those  who  remained  at  home  with  the  classical  knowl- 
edge brought  back  from  the  East,  the  race  to-day  would  still 
be  following  such  suicidal  doctrines.  As  the  thirteenth 
century  rejected  the  literal  teachings  of  the  Bible,  so  should 
the  twentieth  century  reject  the  figurative  teachings.  There 
has  been  a  gradual  lessening  of  the  effect  of  the  imaginary 
world,  gods,  dreams,  upon  the  human  race  since  the  dawn 
of  history,  and  the  time  has  come  when  the  destiny  of  the 
race  demands  that  these  beliefs  be  openly  abandoned,  that 
civilization  be  based  upon  the  real  exclusively ;  for  it  can 
never  reach  the  acme  of  its  development  any  other  way. 

Ill 

The  superstition  of  savages  really  produces  a  purer  form 
of  religion  than  does  the  church  to-day.  It  is  true  the  doc- 


326      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

trine  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  has  done  much  towards 
civilizing  the  Western  World,  but  in  practice  to-day  it  is 
utterly  disregarded,  so  that  it  does  less  to  bind  the  race 
together  than  the  greed  of  property,  which  wishes  all  men  to 
be  brothers  so  that  they  can  the  better  use  one  another. 
The  savage's  superstition  protects  the  individual  from  out- 
side evils  and  preserves  order  within  the  tribe.  Our  theology 
does  not  keep  us  from  going  to  war  with  one  another,  but 
drives  us  to  war  by  justifying  imperialism,  because  it  gives 
missionaries  opportunities  in  hitherto  inaccessible  lands,  the 
Philippines  and  China.  What  a  spectacle  to  see  the  English 
Empire  and  the  Boer  Eepublics  praying  to  the  same  God  for 
victories!  Such  a  belief  is  a  gigantic,  real  farce.  Our 
theological  social  sense  not  only  fails  in  its  dealings  between 
nation  and  nation ;  it  does  not  secure  justice  between  man 
and  man,  but  permits  one  individual  to  exploit  another,  or, 
for  that  matter,  whole  nations,  and  promises  the  abused,  the 
oppressed,  justice  beyond  the  grave,  well  knowing  that  none 
will  ever  get  back  to  tell  of  the  cheat ! 

It  is  the  function  of  the  social  sense  not  only  to  protect 
nation  from  nation,  and  nations  from  outside  evils — not  an 
angry  God  and  an  inimical  nature,  but  other  nations — by 
showing  all  nations  that  humanity  is  one,  that  the  only  way 
for  any  one  nation  to  reach  perfection  and  happiness  is  to 
raise  all  others  with  it.  Our  theological  social  sense  is  abso- 
lutely incapable  of  accomplishing  this  great  desideratum. 
Man  must  become  socialized  by  realizing  that  the  interest  of 
all  is  the  interest  of  each  of  us;  that  it  is  just  as  impossible 
for  one  social  unit  to  be  perfect  and  happy  in  an  imperfect 
and  unhappy  social  organism  as  it  is  for  one  unit  in  the  ani- 
mal body  to  be  well,  healthful  and  at  ease  when  the  body  as 
a  whole  is  disorganized  and  diseased. 

Man  must  become  socialized  and  know  that  cooperation  is 
more  economical  than  competition;  that  peace  is  more  profit- 
able than  war;  that  war  is  just  as  hurtful  to  the  victor  as  to 


THE  GOD  'AND  IMMORTALITY  HYPOTHESIS  327 

the  vanquished ;  that  it  is  an  anachronism,  and  has  no  sanc- 
tion in  a  socialized  man's  religion;  that  it  originated  when 
the  race  was  in  the  tribal  state  and  in  early  formations  of 
nations,  and  served  its  purpose  in  effecting  coalitions  by 
force  before  the  dawn  of  knowledge,  before  the  origination 
of  a  scientific  moral  sense,  and  now  must  pass  away,  or  else 
it  will  dissipate  the  energy  it  lias  conserved  by  turning  upon 
itself  and,  Rhea-like,  devouring  its  own  progeny.  War 
should  pass  away  with  slavery,  human  sacrifice,  cannibalism, 
its  companions  in  the  vicissitudes  of  human  development. 
And  when  one  reads  of  war  and  the  horrid  implements  of 
war,  and  listens  to  jingo  agitators,  one  should  classify  them 
with  the  advocates  of  slavery,  human  sacrifice  and  cannibal- 
ism ;  for  each  of  these  horrible  practices  has  been  beneficial 
to  the  human  race  at  different  stages  of  its  development,  and 
because  war  is  the  last  one,  it  is  no  more  useful  and  neces- 
sary to-day  than  the  rest. 

The  object  of  the  social  sense  to-day  is  to  unify  the  race, 
and  this  cannot  be  accomplished  so  long  as  all  the  surplus 
energy  of  the  race  is  used  up  in  wars  and  preparation  for 
wars ;  yet  this  most  important  truth  has  never  dawned  upon 
the  theological  social  sense.  If  the  really  moral  persons  of 
the  race  could  only  see  that  it  is  the  real  function  of  the 
social  sense  to  adjust  man  to  society,  and  nation  to  nation, 
by  intelligence  and  morality  and  not  by  force,  and  rise  and 
demand  of  our  savage  governments  that  it  be  done,  not  a 
century  would  elapse  before  the  race  would  enter  upon  its 
ultimate  standard  of  living.  But  with  the  church  guard- 
ing its  dogmas  inherited  from  our  barbarian  ancestors, 
considering  the  keeping  of  them  of  more  value  to  the  race 
than  the  knowing  of  verifiable  truth,  there  is  no  hope 
for  humanity  through  the  theological  social  sense.  The 
gradual  growth  of  knowledge,  which  undermines  these  old 
beliefs  and  destroys  them  despite  all  care  and  protection, 
has  reached  a  stage  in  development  at  which  an  intellectual 


328      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

invoice  of  what  the  race  believes  should  take  place ;  then 
these  old  beliefs  would  be  relegated  to  the  column  of  loss, 
and  the  entire  capital  of  the  race  be  invested  in  a  scientific 
social  sense. 

A  belief  in  God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul  robs  life 
of  reality.  We  cannot  possibly  know  what  we  are  so  long  as 
we  start  out  with  theories  which  stop  thought  at  the  very 
beginning.  The  human  mind  and  human  endeavor  are  held 
in  bondage  to-day  by  concepts  inherited  from  our  savage 
ancestors.  Oriented  humanity  can  read  what  the  race  is  in 
nature  and  history.  There  is  no  room  for  God  in  nature 
except  as  an  idle  observer  sitting  by  and  watching  the 
wheels  go  round.  We  can  see  no  such  being  any  place  in 
nature;  there  is  no  necessity  for  such  a  being,  and  there  is 
no  evidence  that  He  exists.  God  as  conceived  by  our 
ignorant  ancestors  is  a  great  King  (for  they  knew  nothing  of 
republics)  who  made  the  universe  as  a  man  makes  a  machine, 
and  set  it  going  as  we  start  a  watch,  and  then  went  away 
and  left  it  as  a  child  deserts  a  toy  it  has  become  tired  of. 
None  but  a  child-mind  could  have  originated  such  a  theory ; 
and  we  would  not  believe  it  to-day  but  for  the  fact  it  is  the 
answer  to  our  first  questions  in  infancy  and  our  last  question 
at  death ;  but  for  the  sanction  of  the  church  and  the  teach- 
ings of  all  ages  down  from  our  savage  ancestors  who  orig- 
inated it ;  but  for  the  primal  fact  that  it  has  been  our  social 
sense  for  ages,  and  upon  it  the  stability  of  the  race  has 
depended;  and  for  the  cardinal  fact  that  of  all  things  the 
race  has  seen  fit  to  do  to  perpetuate  its  existence,  none  have 
been  more  imperative  than  uniformity  of  belief,  hence  the 
individual  instinctively  believes,  upholds,  defends,  and,  if 
need  be,  dies  for  the  social  sense  of  the  nation  in  which  he 
happens  to  be  born,  no  matter  how  absurd  or  simple  it  may 
be,  or  how  grand  or  sublime.  And  for  these  reasons  our 
theological  social  sense,  despite  all  of  its  defects,  still  holds 
sway.  Humanity  is  innately  conservative. 


THE  GOD  AXD  IMMOETALITY  HYPOTHESIS  329 

As  the  knowledge  of  man  grows  the  rise  of  God  is  pushed 
back  further  and  further  into  the  unknown.  God  was  once 
necessary  to  explain  the  most  insignificant  phenomena;  but 
is  now  used  only  to  bridge  the  supposed  chasm  between  the 
organic  and  the  inorganic,  and  between  mind  and  matter. 
Since  monism  has  become  the  accepted  philosophy  of  science, 
the  function  of  God  is  now  pushed  back  to  the  Unknowable, 
the  noumenon.  Society  is  known  to  have  had  a  natural 
origin.  Logic  ought  to  show  one  at  a  glance  that  the  God- 
hypothesis  is  erroneous,  born  of  a  savage  brain,  and  finds  no 
place  in  the  scientific  tlxwght  of  to-day.  Only  for  the 
instinctive,  powerful  and  sublime  faith  of  man  in  the  abso- 
lute utility  of  religion  and  his  belief  in  the  impossibility  of 
disassociating  it  from  a  belief  in  God,  the  God-hypothesis 
would  have  disappeared  long  ago.  Man  has  always  believed 
that  with  a  disappearance  of  a  belief  in  God,  religion  would 
be  destroyed ;  hence  to  abolish  the  belief  in  God  would  be  to 
destroy  religion,  and  to  destroy  religion  would  be  to  exter- 
minate the  race;  so  no  wonder  man  has  been  true  to  his 
theological  social  sense,  and  is  still  true  to  it  to-day  regard- 
less of  its  absurdity,  its  falseness,  its  impotency;  and  no 
wonder  he  brands  opposition  to  this  great  belief  as  impiety, 
sacrilege,  infidelity. 

But  the  real  sacrilege  to-day  is  to  let  religion  rest  on  fic- 
tions, when  it  should  rest  on  facts ;  to  let  it  rest  on  a  belief  in 
God  and  immortality  instead  of  a  scientific  social  sense, 
resulting  in  scientific  morality — all  actions  and  beliefs  that 
protect,  perpetuate,  develop  and  perfect  humanity,  produ- 
cing a  religion  of  morality  instead  of  one  of  blind  faith  and 
senseless  ceremonies.  Despite  the  tremendous  obstacles,  it 
is  the  duty  of  all  to  clear  away  these  old  myths,  and  put  in 
the  mind  of  man  the  great  facts  of  nature  and  society ;  then 
the  secrets  of  the  universe  will  be  known  to  all  and  society 
be  a  perfect  organism ;  and  man  will  be  coordinated  to  it  with 
a  religion  that  will  have  all  the  power  of  the  fabled  gods, 


330       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

because  it  will  be  directed  by  a  scientific  social  sense,  and  all 
the  energy  of  nature  and  society  will  be  expended  with  the 
greatest  possible  economy  resulting  in  a  unity  of  race,  in  a 
perfection  of  humanity,  in  the  achievement  of  the  ambi- 
tions, ideals  and  hopes  that  God  and  immortality  are  but  ?• 
prophecy,  a  dream,  a  vision  of. 

So  strangely  do  the  institutions  of  the  race  have  to  pervert 
themselves  before  they  become  extinct  that  to-day  the 
pseudo-godly  men  do  ungodly  deeds  through  laws  and  insti- 
tutions in  the  name  of  God.  An  ungodly  act,  one  inimical 
to  the  welfare  of  the  race,  is  best  protected  by  being  done  in 
the  name  of  God,  the  figurative  expression  for  the  welfare  of 
the  race ;  and  what  more  ungodly  act  can  there  be  than  that 
of  keeping  the  race  from  knowing  the  facts  upon  which  its 
very  life  depends?  The  same  is  true  of  unlawful  acts ;  they 
are  best  protected  by  doing  them  in  the  name  of  the  law. 
Immoral  acts  are  best  protected  by  doing  them  in  the  name 
of  morality.  And  all  this  occurs  every  day.  Things  go  by 
names,  and  no  matter  what  the  act,  if  it  be  given  a  good  name, 
it  is  a  good  thing ;  and  no  matter  how  good  the  act  may  be, 
if  it  is  given  a  bad  name,  it  is  a  bad  thing.  This  is  true 
when  the  race  is  effecting  the  transition  from  control  by  the 
imaginary  world  to  control  by  the  real  world.  What  more 
irreligious  thing  can  one  think  of  than  the  church  in  the 
days  of  Luther,  yet  at  its  heart  was  a  kernel  of  real  religion, 
for  it  bound  the  race  together,  no  matter  if  it  violated  every 
principle  of  justice  and  right. 

It  has  ever  been  that  real  religion  has  been  persecuted 
by  the  false ;  and  true  religion  to-day  will  meet  with  the 
same  fate.  Let  the  genius  point  out  the  falsity  of  our 
institutions  and  take  his  fate.  The  religious  reformer  has 
nothing  to  fear  from  the  irreligious  men  about  him ;  but  the 
pseudo-religious  man,  orthodox  and  respectable,  enthroned 
in  power,  who  always  strikes  down  all  truer  and  better 
forms  of  religion  as  a  matter  of  self-preservation.  Buddha 


THE  GOD  AND  IMMOKTALITY  HYPOTHESIS  331 

met  with  this  opposition;  Mohammed  likewise;  and  Luther, 
Knox,  Calvin,  and  Wesley.  It  is  a  universal  process.  Well 
might  one  think  the  millennium  had  come,  if  the  social 
sense  in  vogue  were  to  accept  a  higher  conception  of  the 
social  sense  from  any  of  the  specialized  individuals  without 
a  struggle;  but  alas!  this  is  not  the  method  of  nature  in 
perfecting  the  race  even  in  the  twentieth  century,  as  witness 
the  persecution  of  Tolstoi  in  Russia  and  social  reformers 
the  world  over! 

The  church  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  accused  of  selling 
indulgences;  what  of  Protestantism  to-day?  Does  it  not 
profit  by  all  kinds  of  lawful  wrongs  and  never  raise  a  voice? 
Does  it  not  accept  blood  money  from  all  kinds  of  nefarious 
schemes  that  oppress  and  exploit  the  people?  Such  an  insti- 
tution cannot  be  reformed,  it  must  be  differentiated  from ; 
and  just  as  Christianity  supplanted  paganism,  so  will  science 
supplant  Christianity  and  the  school  supplant  the  church. 

The  false,  imperfect  and  incomplete  conception  of  religion 
and  its  function  taught  by  the  church  is  only  seen  when 
looked  at  in  the  light  of  science,  history  and  philosophy. 
Owing  to  the  absurd  theology  that  goes  along  with  it,  the 
moral  teachings  of  the  church,  even  when  they  are  good,  are 
of  little  effect.  First,  because  a  moral  life  is  not  at  all  essen- 
tial to  a  religious  life  in  the  church,  its  primal  doctrine  being 
that  the  individual  is  saved  by  faith,  not  by  service  to  the 
race ;  and  secondly,  because  the  church  is  sectarian,  exclu- 
sive, does  not  include  the  whole  race.  Imagine  the  social 
sense  of  a  primitive  tribe  that  did  not  include  every  indi- 
vidual of  the  tribe!  The  religion  of  the  church  misses  the 
chief  function  of  religion,  that  of  binding  the  race  together 
into  one  organism.  First,  because  it  is  not  based  exclusively 
on  morality;  secondly,  because  it  is  not  based  on  a  true 
theory  of  things,  a  scientific  social  sense. 

In  every  hamlet  there  are  persons  who  live  openly  in  rebel- 
lion to  the  mental  and  moral  teachings  of  the  church. 


332      THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF   HUMANITY 

Instead  of  making  them  a  part  of  society,  the  church 
excludes  them.  The  world  at  large  k  oblivious  to  the 
teachings  of  Christianity  so  far  as  practically  living  them  is 
concerned.  The  social  sense  of  theology  can  never  again 
become  so  rational  and  so  useful  that  all  classes,  conditions 
and  qualities  of  men  will  voluntarily  listen  to  its  teachings; 
and  it  cannot  perform  the  essential  functions  of  a  social 
sense  until  these  requirements  are  met.  The  individual  is 
too  intelligent  to  believe  any  longer  in  the  teachings  of  the 
church. 

As  the  Western  World  stands,  there  is  at  least  half 
of  the  race  without  any  acknowledged  social  sense,  the 
unbelievers,  the  agnostics,  skeptics,  persons  of  all  classes  in 
life  and  condition  in  culture ;  then  a  vast  mass  of  believers  in 
the  church's  teachings  who  are  not  doers,  persons  whose 
conscience  does  not  make  them  live  up  to  the  teachings  of 
the  church;  these  are  really  the  truest  believers,  they  are 
not  hypocrites,  but  backsliders!  Then  there  is  another 
large  class  that  may  be  called  sinners,  and  often  criminals, 
who  are  totally  without  the  pales  of  the  church,  yet  believ- 
ers, who  go  through  life  acting  in  opposition  to  their  con- 
sciences, and  never  performing  or  trying  to  perform  any 
duty  religiously.  Think  what  this  kind  of  life  means,  when 
religion  is  seen  to  be  an  essential  instinct  of  social  life,  as 
much  so  as  the  instinct  of  self-preservation  is  of  the  individual 
life !  No  man  can  live  without  religion  except  by  promising 
himself  that  at  some  time  in  his  life  he  is  going  to  change 
for  the  better.  Such  a  life  as  this  will  be  impossible  under 
scientific  moral  and  social  senses,  for  they  will  organize  the 
individual  with  humanity,  and  religion  will  be  experienced 
by  every  one  in  proportion  to  his  service  and  sacrifice  to  the 
race,  none  being  left  out,  none  going  unrewarded.  To  live  a 
life  devoid  of  religion  is  not  living  at  all,  and  siTbjects  such 
persons  to  all  manner  of  violent  experiences,  hardships  and 
calamities,  often  ending  in  crime,  insanity,  suicide.  All  of 


THE  GOD  AND  IMMORTALITY  HYPOTHESIS  333 

this  can  be  avoided  by  simply  teaching  the  true  function  of 
religion,  letting  the  outcast  classes  k-now  that  the  race  as  a 
whole  is  one,  and  that  they  are  welcome  to  enter  into  it,  be 
coordinated  with  it,  and  live  the  life  it  suggests;  that  all 
energies  can  best  be  expended  under  social  direction,  and 
that  the  happiness  secured,  true  religion,  is  the  greatest  man 
can  experience. 

How  many  hungry  souls  have  gone  in  vain  to  the  church 
with  its  petty  and  inane  worship  of  God,  its  base  concep- 
tion of  this  life,  with  its  exaltation  of  the  life  to  come,  in 
the  hopes  of  meeting  with  a  fellowship  world-wide  and 
heart  -  deep,  and  have  met  defeat  because  of  skepticism 
of  the  theological  dogmas  upon  which  the  Christian  religion 
depends !  Religion  should  be  within  the  reach  of  all,  not 
for  the  asking,  but  as  a  result  of  one's  education  and  train- 
ing, one's  conduct,  one's  service  to  the  race;  then  in  the 
hour  of  temptation,  when  one's  individual  nature  tends  to 
acts  inimical  to  the  best  interests  of  the  race,  in  opposition 
to  one's  social  nature,  one  would  be  sustained  by  the  emotion 
of  religion,  and  act  according  to  his  social  nature,  to  the 
best  interests  of  all  humanity. 

To-day  a  great  underlying,  unconscious  feeling  of  religion 
sustains  humanity  in  spite  of  the  petty  religion  of  the  church 
with  its  exclusiveness  both  intellectual  and  social.  It  goes 
under  the  name  of  goodness,  philanthropy,  heroism, 
patriotism,  duty,  kindness,  humanity,  charity,  love  and 
morality.  The  religion  of  the  church  is  chiefly  superstition, 
fanaticism,  bigotry,  prejudice,  hypocrisy,  phariseeism.  Its 
members  obey  with  a  motive  of  fear,  not  love.  Its  joy  is  a 
sense  of  freedom  from  fault,  relief  from  having  done  an  irk- 
some task;  not  an  exhilaration  of  joy  at  having  expended 
energy  in  the  most  economical  manner  possible.  It  is  true, 
when  one  lives  up  to  every  requirement  of  the  church,  and 
knows  nothing  of  the  religion  of  morality  or  a  scientific 
social  sense,  that  the  church  satisfies  one's  religious  nature; 


334       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

but  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  it  is  only  an  excuse  to 
satisfy  one's  religious  instinct,  not  a  function  in  the 
expenditure  of  human  energy  along  the  line  of  the  least 
resistance  with  the  ultimate  purpose  of  perfecting  humanity. 

IV 

What  can  be  more  absurd  than  the  modern  worship  of 
God?  First,  songs  of  praise  set  to  tunes  of  love  addressed  to 
Almighty  God,  then  a  rambling  prayer,  thanking  God  for 
various  benefits  and  asking  for  more,  but  tacitly  doubting 
their  ever  being  granted  by  saying:  "Thy  will  be  done,  not 
mine!"  Then  a  sermon  of  still  more  praise,  followed  by  a 
benediction,  with  expressions  of  delight  from  the  audience 
as  it  passes  out  that  it  is  all  over.  Or  take  mass  in  the 
Catholic  church.  If  God  were  present,  what  would  He 
think  of  it?  Is  not  this  petty  entertainment  for  a  God?  Our 
talk  to  an  infant  is  certainly  foolish,  our  talk  to  one  we  love 
is  rather  silly,  but  our  worship  of  God,  looked  at  in  the 
light  of  reason,  is  the  most  absurd  of  all !  The  savage  feeds 
his  god  with  a  sacrifice,  which  the  priests  sneak  in  and  get 
when  the  tribe  goes  away.  Modern  man  takes  up  a  collec- 
tion. Is  not  this  the  main  object  of  the  service  after  all? 

Eeally  what  should  worship  be?  Was  not  the  Greek 
theater,  reciting  the  deeds  of  heroes  in  its  tragedy,  satirizing 
the  foibles  of  the  people  in  its  comedy,  preferable?  The 
people  of  to-day  think  so  from  a  comparative  attendance  of 
the  theaters  and  the  churches.  There  are  some  things  in 
human  life  so  sublime  that  a  recital  of  them  might  be 
pleasing  even  to  Deity — a  history  of  a  life-long  service  to 
the  race ;  a  recital  of  the  fundamental  truths  of  nature  and 
society;  the  story  of  the  cooperation  of  humanity  in  sub- 
duing nature;  a  picture  of  humanity  when  controlled  by  the 
moral  and  social  senses,  and  unified  by  the  religion  of 
morality — anything  would  be  better  than  what  we  have. 

If  man  was  a  thinking  animal,  if  religion  was  not  an 


THE  GOD  AND  IMMORTALITY  HYPOTHESIS  335 

instinct  blinder  than  love,  then  man  could  see  the  absurdity 
of  the  Christian  worship  of  God.  Society  has  made  the 
common  man  absolutely  oblivious  to  the  imperfections  of 
the  social  sense  so  long  as  it  is  in  authority ;  and  if  some  one 
does  not  speak  out  and  take  the  consequences,  this  church 
mummery  will  pass  for  a  social  sense  for  ages  yet  to  come. 
It  does  not  satisfy  man's  conscience,  for  not  one  man  in  ten 
ever  goes  to  church.  It  does  arouse  the  emotion  of  religion, 
as  does  the  faithful  use  of  the  rabbit's  foot  amongst  our 
cplored  brethren.  But  that  man's  religious  nature  cannot 
be  satisfied  with  such  stuff  as  this  is  shown  in  the  horrors 
of  modern  life — insanity,  crime,  sin,  suicide,  oppression, 
tyranny,  injustice,  inequality,  disease,  vice,  and  all  the 
other  unsocial  ills  that  imperfect  society  to-day  suffers  under 
our  theological  social  sense,  which  neither  adapts  man  to  the 
race  nor  the  race  to  the  environment,  and  which  makes  life 
as  blind  and  as  unintelligent  as  when  we  were  savages  roaming 
the  plains  of  Western  Europe  twenty  centuries  ago.  Under 
the  true  social  sense  every  member  of  society  will  come 
under  the  survey  of  the  race,  be  taught  from  infancy  up  the 
way  to  live — not  as  some  careless  God  has  taught,  delivering 
His  message  to  an  ignorant  and  savage  people, but  the  constant 
revelation  of  truth  as  discovered  by  the  mind  of  man  in  con- 
tact with  nature  and  society.  Then  the  life  of  the  individual 
will  not  be  a  preparation,  but  an  end ;  and  to  live  will  be  a 
joy,  not  a  trial;  and  society  will  be  an  organism  with  known 
structure  and  known  functions,  and  religion  will  be  the 
result  of  social  service  to  the  race. 

Christianity  is  fundamentally  wrong  to-day  in  its  concept 
of  salvation,  in  that  Christian  salvation  is  individual,  not 
social.  The  race  as  a  whole  is  either  saved  or  lost.  Had 
not  humanity  been  able  to  keep  up  true  religion  under  the 
guise  of  many  other  emotions,  it  would  have  ceased  to  be  an 
organism  for  want  of  the  cementing  power  of  true  religion. 
But  always  we  have  had  going  with  our  theological  social 


336      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

sense  true  goodness  to  save  mankind.  It  is  impossible  for 
Christianity  to  become  social,  and  for  that  reason  it  should 
be  discarded. 

The  greatest  imperfection  of  the  church  is  that,  owing  to 
its  lack  of  intellectuality,  it  is  separated  from  the  school. 
The  basis  of  the  school,  its  fundamental  principle,  should 
be  the  religion  of  morality,  but  the  church,  owing  to  its 
intellectual  imperfections,  and  the  school,  owing  to  its  being 
denied  the  right  to  teach  the  religion  of  morality,  both  fail 
in  developing  true  religion,  and  are  inoperative  institutions. 
All  the  morality  a  vast  majority  of  people  get  they  pick  up, 
imbibe,  learn  from  experience  in  life.  It  is  the  great 
instinct  of  religion,  the  instinct  to  protect,  to  perpetuate 
and  perfect  society,  coming  out  in  spite  of  the  church  and 
the  school,  which  gives  stability  to  civilization  to-day.  It  will 
be  this  religious  instinct  that  will  purify  the  church  or  else 
do  away  with  it.  No  wonder  the  world  is  full  of  woe  when 
the  school  attends  only  to  man's  intellectual  nature.  The 
school  of  the  future  will  be  chiefly  engaged  in  developing 
man's  moral  and  social  nature,  instead  of  his  intellectual 
nature  at  their  expense.  No  wonder  at  the  misery  of  life, 
when  the  church,  the  institution  that  gives  expression  to 
man's  moral  life,  teaches  that  this  life  is  a  preparation  for  a 
life  to  come,  depreciates  this  life  into  insignificance,  thus 
handicapping  those  who  believe  in  it  most,  by  unfitting  them 
to  live,  and  benefiting  those  who  disbelieve  in  it,  by  permit- 
ting them  to  take  advantage  of  the  unwary  Christian. 

Morality  is  taught  by  that  care  of  man  for  man  as  seen 
in  family  relationship.  Keligion  in  its  first  form  is  love 
of  kind,  responsibility  for  kind,  obedience  to  kind,  fear  of 
kind  when  retractable,  seen  in  the  primitive  tribe.  Noth- 
ing is  more  inimical  to  true  religion  than  the  spirit  of  modern 
city  life,  which  cares  nothing  for  those  about  one,  and  lives 
independently  and  outside  of  all  restrictions.  All  aristoc- 
racy, class-society,  smart  sets,  four  hundreds,  nobilities,  are 


THE  GOD  AND  IMMORTALITY  HYPOTHESIS  337 

intrinsically  irreligious.  The  same  is  true  of  the  bitter 
spirit  of  the  business  world.  It  is  utterly  incompatible  with 
true  religion.  Imperialism,  commercialism,  materialism, 
capitalism,  the  struggle  for  existence,  the  inveterate  spirit  of 
war — all  are  antagonistic  to  true  religion.  True  religion 
to-day  is  a  product  of  peace,  refinement,  culture,  intelli- 
gence. It  is  born  of  thought  and  sympathy.  It  is  insep- 
arable from  morality,  race-producing,  race-developing, 
race- perfecting  conduct.  It  is  the  invariable  accompaniment 
of  a  high  life  no  matter  how  lived. 

Nothing  is  truer  than  the  precept >  "Believe  and  thou 
shalt  be  saved!"  But  to-day  it  is  not  the  belief  of  existing 
Christianity  that  will  save  one,  but  a  belief  in  a 'social  sense 
consisting  of  verifiable,  public,  corporate  knowledge,  which, 
when  realized  in  laws  and  institutions,  will  control  all  of  the 
energies  of  man  with  perfect  economy.  The  state  will  bo 
based  on  verifiable,  public,  corporate  knowledge,  not  the 
state  of  the  nineteenth  century,  nor  the  church  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages;  but  a  state  which  will  combine  the  holy  purpose  of 
the  church  with  the  avowed  utility  of  the  state,  realizing 
the  prophecy  dimly  adumbrated  in  the  state  of  our  primitive 
ancestors,  wherein  politics  and  religion  were  one  and  the 
same  thing,  and  once  more  making  service  to  the  state  duly 
rewarded  by  religious  ecstasy,  disobedience  followed  by 
despair,  shame,  death. 

The  church  to-day  cannot  preacn  absolute  obedience,  for 
after  nineteen  centuries  she  stands  condemned  by  disobe- 
dience. It  is  true  to-day  that  our  scientific  knowledge  as  a 
social  sense  can  scarcely  be  said  to  be  an  eye  with  which  to 
see  the  way  social  energy  should  be  expended,  yet  even 
imperfect  as  it  is,  it  demonstrates  the  inadequacy  of  Chris- 
tianity as  a  salvation  for  the  race.  The  church  preaches  a 
remedy  for  social  ills,  which  has  been  tried  for  nineteen  cen- 
turies, and  ever  found  to  be  a  failure;  but  such  is  the 
inability  of  the  race  to  throw  off  its  effete  social  senses,  that 


338       THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

each  new  generation  tries  the  old  remedy  over  and  over 
again.  The  orthodox  church  to-day  can  do  nothing  with 
the  problems  of  the  present,  because  it  has  no  ameliorative 
ideas  to  execute.  It  has  tried  every  remedy  it  has,  and  the 
race  is  still  a  very  sick  man.  Its  guidance  of  human  energy 
does  not  result  in  that  economical  expenditure  of  energy 
required  by  the  moral  sense  in  order  to  have  peace  and  prog- 
ress in  society.  The  church  cannot  save,  because  it  has  no 
saving  ideas.  The  time  has  come  when  Christianity's 
unverifiable  beliefs  do  not  fit  the  individual's  acute  intellect 
and  bind  the  race  together;  for  the  individual's  intellect  has 
outgrown  Christianity,  and  the  church  not  only  fails  to  con- 
tinue the  development  of  the  individual,  which  it  so  glori- 
ously began,  but  gets  in  the  way  of  any  other  institution,  the 
school,  for  example,  designed  by  science  for  that  purpose. 
It  is  impossible  for  the  individual  to  believe  in  the  church 
any  longer.  Agnosticism  is  the  creed  of  modern  man  and 
the  first  opposition  to  the  church  that  is  perfectly  respect- 
able. However,  the  church  still  has  the  allegiance  of  a 
goodly  portion  of  Western  civilization,  because  of  what  it 
has  accomplished,  and  because  man  is  not  a  thinking,  logical 
being.  Since  its  beginning  Christianity  has  made  wonder- 
ful metamorphoses,  becoming  all  things  to  all  men  in  order 
to  win  them;  and  its  future  existence  depends  exclusively 
upon  whether  or  not  it  can  become  the  organ  of  science  If 
it  can,  as  in  the  past,  the  church  will  divide  the  executory 
functions  of  society  with  the  community  and  the  state ;  but 
if  the  church  cannot  become  the  organ  of  verifiable  knowl- 
edge, then  it  will  pass  away,  as  have  all  other  effete  institu- 
tions of  the  race,  and  the  school  will  take  its  place. 

What  a  privilege,  if  on  each  Sunday,  one  could  attend 
some  church  and  hear  a  discourse  by  some  chosen  scholar  on 
some  of  the  moral  and  social  problems  of  the  ages,  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  a  discussion  by  chosen  leaders.  Such  a  system  of 
worship  would  be  consonant  with  democracy;  would  be 


THE  GOD  AND  IMMORTALITY  HYPOTHESIS  339 

acceptable  to  the  whole  human  race.  It  would  emphasize 
the  equality  of  man,  the  denial  of  privilege.  The  theater 
should  become  a  place  of  instruction  as  well  as  amusement ; 
become  a  religious  institution  as  it  originally  was,  and  men 
instead  of  spending  their  leisure  time  in  senseless  eating  and 
drinking,  as  they  do  in  saloons,  hotels  and  gardens,  should 
take  delight  in  solving  the  great  problems  of  life,  mind  and 
society,  subjects  that  should  always  be  open  for  discussion 
and  investigation,  and  be  the  source  of  the  second  greatest 
pleasure  known  to  human  life,  intellectual  emotion  at  the 
discovery  of  truth,  and  only  surpassed  in  ecstasy  by  the 
emotion  of  religion  in  the  service  of  humanity.  The  great- 
est entertainment  a  people  can  have  is  that  of  discussing 
monistic  concepts  of  nature,  life,  mind  and  society.  Man 
by  nature  is  a  philosopher,  but  the  thought-stopping  social 
sense  of  theology  blocks  all  investigation  of  nature,  life, 
mind  and  society  from  a  naturalistic  point  of  view  by  set- 
tling all  investigations  with  one  invariable  answer,  God  made 
everything,  and  there  the  discussion  ends.  But  monism 
once  more  opens  up  the  universe  to  investigation,  and  one  of 
the  greatest  delights  is  to  acquire  the  knowledge  the  race 
has  accumulated  on  any  subject  and  add  one's  own  incre- 
ment, let  it  be  fact  or  theory.  Our  system  of  education  is 
now  a  painful  process,  simply  because  the  mind  is  not  turned 
loose  to  find,  or  is  not  led  into  acquiring  the  real  knowledge 
of  nature,  life,  mind  and  society.  Investigation  of  these  car- 
dinal subjects  is  stopped  by  saying:  "God  created  them. 
We  cannot  know  how.  But  study  this  dead  language  or 
that;  this  abstract  science  or  that,  and  you  will  get  a 
degree."  Education,  instead  of  being  the  greatest  delight 
outside  of  religious  service  to  the  race,  is  one  of  the  most 
painful  operations  our  youth  are  subjected  to.  Education  will 
be  one  of  the  great  occupations  of  the  race  in  ages  to  come, 
when  all  the  earth  will  come  under  the  rule  of  the  race,  and 
nature  in  all  of  her  forms  be  perfectly  familiar  to  every  one. 


340       THE   SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

V 

The  great  protection  and  perfection  that  religion  gives 
man  to-day  is  within  society,  and  not  without,  as  it  was  when 
religion  was  meant  to  shield  man  from  nature  and  hostile 
tribes.  It  is  through  religion  that  social  justice  will  be 
secured.  Law  cannot  reach  the  oppression  of  modern 
tyrants.  The  moral  sense  will  have  to  be  developed  by  a 
scientific  social  sense,  so  that  it  will  be  to  the  individual  an 
all-feeling  sense  of  touch  that  compasses  the  entire  race, 
making  it  an  organism  sensitive  alike  in  all  of  its  parts,  so 
that  a  wrong  done  to  the  simplest  individual  will  be  as  hurt- 
ful as  one  done  to  the  greatest;  then  an  injury  to  the  race 
will  be  an  injury  to  self,  and  human  energy  will  be  expended 
along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance,  thought  out  by  the 
social  sense,  determined,  not  so  much  by  external  coercion  as 
by  the  individual's  own  sense  of  duty  and  conscience.  Noth- 
ing but  a  religion  based  on  enlightened  service  to  the  race 
can  produce  the  democratization  of  humanity.  So  long  as 
the  church  maintains  its  present  orthodox,  unprogressive, 
incapable-of -enlightenment  position,  it  will  be  impossible  for 
it  to  foster  true  religion;  but  instead,  it  will  be  a  harassing 
bar  to  all  true  religion.  The  greatest  opposition  that  true 
religion  has  always  met  with  has  been  from  the  orthodox 
religion  it  came  to  take  the  place  of.  It  has  been  so  in  all 
ages,  in  all  climes,  and  it  is  so  to-day. 

As  the  church  used  the  temples  of  paganism,  so  in  the 
coming  ages  the  true  religion  will  find  temples  in  Christian 
churches.  And  just  as  Christianity  lived  beside  paganism 
for  over  three  hundred  years  unknown,  unseen,  unnoticed, 
so  has  there  grown  up  in  the  Western  World  a  great  scien- 
tific social  sense,  as  yet  unorganized,  the  school  being  its 
incipient  organization,  that  will  take  complete  charge  of 
modern  life,  as  Christianity  took  charge  of  the  Roman 
Empire  in  the  fourth  century.  The  church's  hold  upon  the 
world  is  purely  hypocritical.  Real  belief  in  the  Bible  ceased 


to  exist  hundreds  of  years  ago.  The  Reformation  was  the 
first  expression  of  the  new  social  sense ;  modern  represent- 
ative government  the  second,  and  the  science  of  to-day  the 
third  and  last.  Modern  science  has  completely  supplanted 
Christianity  as  a  social  sense,  but  we  do  not  let  ourselves 
see  it  clearly.  The  school  has  really  taken  the  place  of  the 
church.  Where  do  we  get  our  concept  of  things?  All  that 
is  needed  is  a  Constantino  to  proclaim  the  advent  of  the 
religion  of  morality  to  the  race.  We  are  ready  for  it.  And 
as  paganism  disappeared,  so  will  Christianity,  leaving  all 
that  is  good  in  it  behind.  It  may  be  painful  to  the  sec- 
tarian to  think  his  loved  sect  must  give  way  to  the  true 
philosophy;  but  in  the  history  of  humanity  such  a  catas- 
trophe has  occurred  more  than  once.  Think  of  the  radical 
change  Constantine  introduced  into  the  Roman  Empire! 
Some  day  we  will  have  a  modern  Constantine  in  the  form  of 
a  free  people  who  will  have  the  courage  to  proclaim  to 
the  world  that  the  old  dogmas  are  dead,  and  that  henceforth 
the  principles  of  science  are  to  be  the  guiding  star  of  Western 
civilization ;  that  in  place  of  having  a  religion  based  on  faith, 
we  will  have  one  based  on  morality,  service  to  the  race ;  and 
the  heavens  will  not  fall  at  the  announcement,  but  instead 
there  will  be  a  great  enlightenment  to  the  whole  race ;  the 
scope  of  human  thought  will  be  widened,  the  human  horizon 
broadened,  and  human  feeling  extended  so  that  it  will  com- 
prise the  entire  race,  and  ultimately  the  democratization  and 
socialization  of  humanity  will  be  accomplished. 

If  all  this  is  so,  why  have  none  spoken  it  before?  It  has 
been  spoken  by  implication  thousands  of  times,  and  no 
doubt  many  of  my  readers  will  wish  that  I  had  so  spoken  it 
now,  for  then  this  book  would  have  greater  vogue,  be  more 
respectable,  and  they  could  afford  to  be  better  friends  to  it. 
But  the  time  has  come  when  some  one  should  speak  out  in 
plain,  unmistakable  language.  Everybody  is  entitled  to  the 
truth.  What  has  deterred  others?  Let  an  author  speak  his 


342        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

mind  and  who  will  read  his  book?  What  kind  of  people  are 
his  friends?  Jesus  associated  with  the  blind,  the  lame  and 
the  halt,  the  poor  and  despised  classes  not  from  choice,  but 
because  no  one  else  would  associate  with  Him.  Socrates 
was  considered  a  loafer  by  the  better  citizens  of  Athens,  and 
had  inexperienced  youth  for  his  companions.  Even  to-day 
advanced  thinkers  are  considered  cranks.  The  author  who 
dares  speak  his  mind  has  the  pariahs  of  the  earth  for  his 
friends. 

There  is  a  purpose  in  the  indirectness  and  obscurity  of 
great  writers.  The  language  of  philosophy  conceals  much 
more  thought  than  it  expresses.  Diogenes  says  of  Plato: 
"He  employs  a  great  variety  of  terms  in  order  to  render  his 
philosophic  system  unintelligible  to  the  ignorant."  When 
the  Grecian  philosopher  Stilpo  was  asked  by  Crates:  "Do 
the  gods  delight  in  adoration  and  prayer?"  He  answered: 
"Do  not  ask  these  questions,  you  foolish  man,  in  the  road, 
but  in  private."  And  when  the  Grecian  philosopher  Bion 
was  asked  whether  there  were  any  gods,  answered:  "Will 
you  first,  0  miserable  man,  remove  the  multitude?"  If  any 
of  our  statesmen  were  to  speak  in  public  what  they  really 
believe  about  God  and  immortality,  they  would  forever 
keep  silence  and  never  run  for  office  again.  Our  public  men 
are  compelled  to  be  hypocrites.  To  what  office  might  not 
Robert  G.  Ingersoll  have  aspired  and  have  been  elected  had  he 
bridled  his  tongue?  His  associates  all  thought  as  he,  but 
said  nothing.  They  sat  in  high  places  as  their  reward. 
'Always  respect  the  religious  beliefs  and  practices  of  a  people 
if  you  would  be  popular  with  them.  Woe  to  the  religious 
reformer,  woe  to  the  iconoclast,  woe  to  the  innovator !  The 
world  places  a  prize  on  hypocrisy. 

Is  it  not  a  sad  commentary  on  the  twentieth  century  that 
no  man  holding  the  most  advanced  thought  on  any  subject 
dare  express  it?  What  a  shocking  thing  to  know  that  knowl~ 
edge  is  mistrusted  and  superstition  and  hypocrisy  rewarded ! 


THE  GOD  AND  IMMORTALITY  HYPOTHESIS  343 

What  a  pleasure  it  would  be  if  one  could  go  into  some 
temple  each  Sunday  morning  and  hear  preached  a  religion 
based  on  the  service  of  man  to  society,  a  philosophy  based 
on  the  relation  of  man  to  nature  and  society!  Oh,  if  one 
could  listen  to  the  true  philosophy  of  religion!  How  the 
instinct  arose  to  protect  the  tribe !  How  it  lives  to  perfect 
the  race!  How  the  democratization  and  socialization  of 
humanity  will  be  accomplished,  when  a  verifiable  scientific 
social  sense  is  realized  in  institutions  motived  by  true  relig- 
ion! 

This  will  be  called  impiety,  certainly.  Martyrdom  has 
been  the  fate  of  many  who  have  dared  to  teach  the  race  its 
highest  moral  concepts,  its  greatest  ideas.  The  idea  of  God 
is  held  so  sacredly  that  to  explain  it  on  naturalistic  prin- 
ciples is  a  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost.  Sacrilege  is  not  to 
deny  the  existence  of  this  imaginary  world,  but  to  deny  the 
power  of  society,  the  social  world,  in  which  we  live,  and 
move,  and  have  our  being,  and  which  conflicts  with  the 
imaginary  world  of  God.  Sacrilege  is  to  deny  the  power  of 
the  moral  sense.-  If  we  let  the  imaginary  world  stand,  it 
becomes  impotent  through  disbelief,  and  the  moral  and  social 
senses  cannot  take  its  place  on  account  of  public  moral 
cowardice.  Hence  we  have  the  condition  of  affairs  we  see 
to-day,  men  thinking  they  are  very  good  citizens,  because 
they  believe  in  God,  yet  constantly  acting  against  the  best 
interests  of  humanity.  A  man  may  be  a  saint  in  morals,  yet 
if  he  openly  rejects  Christianity  he  is  called  an  infidel,  am] 
becomes  incapable  of  holding  any  office  of  trust  and  profit, 
denied  the  privilege  of  teaching  in  the  schools  or  writing  for 
the  press,  and  is  generally  a  man  to  be  mistrusted  and 
avoided,  especially  by  our  youth.  On  the  other  hand,  no 
matter  what  a  man's  conduct,  so  he  is  fairly  decent  about  it, 
and  provided  he  is  loud-mouthedly  orthodox  in  his  faith,  he 
has  the  world  open  to  him.  The  theological  social  sense 
rewards  hypocrisy  and  punishes  candor  and  honesty. 


344        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

The  time  has  come  to  abandon  the  imaginary  world  and  its 
ruler,  God,  and  let  the  facts  determine  our  life,  trace  all 
emotion  to  its  true  source,  and  fearlessly  live  and  speak  the 
truth.  Many  men  heretofore  have  rejected  a  belief  in  God, 
Ingersoll,  Voltaire,  Kant;  but  they  have  always  had  a  string 
of  hope  tied  to  it,  and  at  the  grave,  or  in  the  presence  of  the 
vastness  of  the  universe,  or  the  sublimity ,of  moral  responsi- 
bility, have  pulled  it  back  again.  The  conception  of  God 
and  imniuilalily  is  only  allegorically  true,  and  must  be  done 
away  with,  and  the  true  conception  of  the  moral  and  social 
senses,  of  the  religion  of  morality,  of  the  all-sufficiency  of 
nature,  be  put  in  its  stead.  It  is  absurd  to  think  nature 
other  than  it  seems.  To  bring  a  God  on  the  scene  only 
complicates  the  problem  and  makes  it  absolutely  insoluble ; 
for  we  cannot  know  anything  about  God  after  postulating 
His  existence,  except  what  we  guess,  and  no  two  guesses  are 
alike. 

But  there  are  those  who  will  say  it  is  best  for  man  to  be 
so  placed  in  darkness  to  work  out  his  own  salvation. 
Whether  it  is  best  or  not  such  is  the  fact;  only  man  was  not 
placed  in  darkness  but  developed  out  of  darkness,  first  into 
the  light  of  intellect,  then  into  the  light  of  the  social  sense. 
We  have  traced  the  evolution  without  the  hypothesis  of  God. 
Assume  a  God  in  nature,  and  everything  is  chaos ;  for  would 
an  omnipotent  God  take  a  hundred  millions  of  years  to 
make  a  man?  Why  use  the  God  hypothesis  at  all?  When 
we  know  what  matter  is,  when  we  know  what  energy  is, 
there  is  no  use  having  any  other  factor  to  explain  every  other 
thing.  God  is  an  unknown  letter  in  the  problem  that  here- 
tofore has  stood  for  our  ignorance,  and  can  be  dispensed 
with  to-day  now  that  we  have  the  knowledge  of  science. 

Everything  that  we  see  that  is  good,  great,  sublime,  even 
divine,  nature  has  slowly  evolved  out  of  primitive  elements 
and  energies  Nature  is  not  another  term  for  God,  but  con- 
sists of  the  elements  and  energies  constituting  the  universe 


THE  GOD  AND  IMMORTALITY  HYPOTHESIS  345 

in  their  ceaseless  interactions,  during  the  universal  process. 
It  is  to  humanity  that  we  owe  civilization;  not  to  God.  It 
is  the  hand  of  humanity  that  we  see  stretched  out  to  the 
erring,  the  unfortunate,  the  oppressed,  not  God's ;  and  not 
that  of  His  followers  either,  for  who  are  more  ruthless  in  the 
destruction  of  life  than  kings  and  emperors  who  rule  by 
divine  right?  It  was  not  God  who  unfurled  the  Cuban  flag, 
but  generous,  liberty -loving  man !  It  is  not  God  demanding 
freedom  from  the  tyrants  of  Europe,  from  materialistic 
despots  the  world  over,  but  loving,  religious  man.  It  is  to 
man  we  can  trace  everything  great  in  civilization.  It  was 
man  who  originated  religion,  morality,  knowledge,  institu- 
tions, the  fine  arts,  civilization — all  that  is  useful,  good,  true 
and  beautiful.  It  will  be  man  who  will  realize  the  socializa- 
tion of  the  race.  It  is  humanity  that  responds  to  our 
aspirations,  that  satisfies  our  longings,  that  gives  us  incen- 
tive to  live,  and  makes  life  worth  living ;  that  gives  us  the 
only  immortality  known  to  nature,  to  live  in  the  human  race 
in  thought  and  blood ;  that  takes  the  place  of  God  in  relig- 
ion in  uniting  the  race  in  a  body  politic,  and  fills  the  func- 
tion perfectly.  It  is  humanity  that  develops  in  us  the  moral 
sense  which  feels  the  whole  race  as  one  great  sublime  organ- 
ism. It  is  humanity  that  teaches  us  the  social  sense  which 
shows  us  our  relation  to  the  race  and  its  relation  to  us, 
makes  us  a  unit  in  the  social  organism,  giving  us  life  eternal 
in  the  life  of*  humanity,  making  us  akin  to  our  savage 
brother  in  the  stone  age,  and  our  socialized  brother  in  the 
coming  age  of  democracy.  It  is  to  humanity  we  owe  all  we 
are  or  hope  to  be,  our  joys,  our  ambitions,  our  aspirations 
our  entire  being. 

God  is  but  the  imaginary  and  figurative  guardian  of  the 
race,  dimly  shadowing  forth  what  the  race  itself  was  doing. 
Let  the  idea  and  word  go.  Let  the  race  itself  come  into 
its  birthright,  and  let  the  function  of  the  race  be  known  as 
it  is,  has  been,  and  ever  will  be;  and  let  us  meet  the  facts  of 


346  *  THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

nature  and  society  face  to  face,  and  work  out  our  destiny  as 
determined  by  the  nature  of  things,  in  the  light  of  the  social 
sense,  not  with,  fear  and  trembling,  but  with  courage  and 
conviction,  with  honest  labor  and  manly  cooperation,  and 
be  done  forever  with  the  theories  of  our  savage  ancestors, 
regardless  of  their  service  in  the  past.  Then  the  race  will 
speedily  be  socialized  and  democratized,  and  the  ultimate 
condition  of  humanity  on  earth  be  reached. 

Just  as  when  we  were  children,  we  had  our  childish  feel- 
ings agreeably  shocked  at  finding  out  that  the  mythical  Santa 
Glaus  was  our  dearly  beloved  parents,  so  now  when  we  are 
fully  oriented  do  we  again  have  our  feelings  agreeably 
shocked  at  finding  out  that  God,  a  kind  of  greater  Santa 
Glaus,  is  only  a  symbol,  an  allegory  for  the  great  human 
race;  and  that  the  race  stands  as  the  correlate  to  man  in  all 
of  his  needs  of  a  higher,  a  deeper,  a  broader  and  a  purer  life ; 
and  that  the  one  revelation  no  more  than  the  other  has  a 
deleterious  effect  upon  us,  but  instead  a  beneficent  one,  for 
love  is  always  stronger  when  directed  toward  a  known  object 
than  an  ideal,  and  so  is  its  higher  form,  religion.  The  hap- 
piest day  in  the  philosopher's  life  is  when  he  sees  this  great 
truth ;  and  it  will  be  so  with  all  of  us  despite  the  fears  that 
superstition  arouses,  despite  the  prejudice  of  conservatism, 
despite  the  jealousy  of  self-interest.  The  abiding  peace  is 
the  monistic  philosophy,  for  when  nature,  life,  mind  and 
society  are  interpreted  in  its  terms,  this  is  the  language  of 
eternity,  and  nothing  can  rob  us  of  the  joy  it  brings ;  and 
the  dread  and  fear  we  feel  to-day,  when  protecting  our  theo- 
logical social  sense,  Christianity,  from  the  ceaseless  attacks 
of  the  individual's  intellectuality,  will  be  unknown ;  for  the 
social  sense  of  science  will  be  based  on  real  facts,  and  not  on 
an  allegory  or  symbol  of  them.  At  last  the  individual's  dis- 
covery of  truth  will  be  harmonized  with  society's  protection 
of  truth.  The  intellectual  anarchy  of  the  race  will  end, 
and  the  thought  of  the  race,  its  knowledge,  will  be  organized 


THE  GOD  AND  IMMORTALITY  HYPOTHESIS  347 

in  a  system  of  monistic  philosophy  in  which  every  fact  will 
find  its  place  and  every  hope  its  correlate.  Instead  of  being 
a  catastrophe,  which  our  superstition  makes  us  dread,  there 
will  result  the  most  glorious  success  the  elements  and 
energies  of  nature  have  ever  achieved — the  socialization  of 
the  race. 


CHAPTER    XVII 

ASPECTS   OF   SCIENTIFIC    MORALITY 


The  theological  social  sense  takes  no  account  of  social 
responsibility.  The  individual  is  responsible  to  society,  but 
society  is  not  responsible  to  the  individual.  Individual 
responsibility  is  based  upon  the  famous  theological  doctrine 
of  the  freedom  of  the  will;  society  is  not  deemed  to  be 
responsible  to  the  individual,  because  social  responsibility  is 
beyond  the  conception  of  one  starting  from  the  principles  of 
the  theological  social  sense,  it  being  impious  to  say  that  God 
is  responsible  to  man  for  anything ;  God  in  the  theological 
social  sense  taking  the  place  of  humanity  in  the  scientific 
social  sense. 

The  discussion  of  responsibility  leads  to  an  examination  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  freedom  of  the  will ;  for  it  is  through  the 
freedom  of  the  will  that  the  individual  is  supposed  to  be 
responsible.  The  primitive  form  of  the  will  is  chemical 
affinity.  In  its  developed  forms  it  is  appetite,  desire,  will, 
love,  religion.  Primarily  it  has  to  do  with  self-preservation ; 
secondarily,  with  reproduction,  and  thirdly,  in  the  form  of 
religion,  with  the  protection,  preservation  and  perfection  of 
the  race,  society.  The  highest  form  of  will  is  religion. 
Religion  is  to  the  social  organism  what  will  is  to  tlie_ animal 
organism;  one  is  the  basis  of  self-preservation,  the  other  is 
the  basis  of  social  preservation.  It  makes  no  difference  in 
what  form  will  is  manifested,  it  is  always  statical  in  its 
function,  that  is,  it  always  results  in  order;  yet  it  is  the 
motor  power  of  the  universe,  the  dynamic  of  the  universal 
process.  It  has  to  do  with  the  law  of  internal  repetition. 

348 


ASPECTS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MORALITY        349 

It  preserves  the  form  of  things.  It  perpetuates  them.  It 
saves  them.  In  humanity,  in  the  form  of  religion,  it  is  the 
salvation  of  the  race.  Will  is  the  basis  of  all  order,  yet  the 
motor  power  of  all  progress.  It  is  the  persistence  of  forms 
in  chemical  compounds,  the  law  of  heredity  in  organic  com- 
pounds, and  the  basis  of  order  in  society. 

Internal  energy  is  the  basis  of  all  movement  in  the  uni- 
verse. All  external  energy  does  is  to  direct  internal  energy 
when  it  is  not  determined  by  its  own  contending  forms.  In 
physical  inorganic  nature  external  energy  is  simply  the  con- 
ditions of  internal  energy  in  the  form  of  matter.  In 
organic  nature,  external  energy,  in  the  form  of  intellect, 
directs  the  internal  energies  to  the  advantage  of  the  indi- 
vidual organism.  In  society,  external  energy,  in  the  form 
of  knowledge,  directs  internal  energy  in  the  form  of  religion. 
All  change  is  effected  by  external  energy,  but  the  dynamic  is 
internal  energy.  When  these  two  forms  of  energy  reach  a 
moving  equilibrium  there  results  an  organism,  the  animal 
organism  and  the  social  organism.  Each  of  these  two  forms 
of  energy  has  many  manifestations,  but  their  characteristics 
are  always  the  same. 

Nothing  is  free.  Everything  is  limited  by  every  other 
thing.  But  whenever  in  the  course  of  the  universal  process 
an  organism  is  developed  so  powerful,  consisting  of  such  an 
interminable  chain  of  causes  and  effects,  that  it  comprises 
within  itself  not  only  its  own  life,  but  the  inherited  lives  of 
all  of  its  ancestors  in  the  form  of  mind  and  the  moral  and 
social  senses,  and  through  its  mentality  and  sociality  is  so 
powerful  that  it  is  more  than  able  to  counteract  all  other 
stimuli  and  influences  in  determining  its  actions,  it  is  said 
to  be  free.  Such  a  being  is  the  individual  to-day,  and  in 
time  the  social  organism  will  be  another,  only  infinitely 
greater.  But  to  understand  the  human  will  it  must  be  con- 
sidered as  it  is,  a  natural  energy. 

The  will  in  nature  devoid  of  senses  follows  the  line  of  the 


350      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

least  resistance,  determined  only  by  the  contending 
energy,  the  parallelogram  of  forces,  acts  as  a  chem- 
ical energy,  and  is  a  chemical  energy.  With  the  de- 
velopment of  the  senses  the  will  is  guided  into  the 
channel  of  the  least  pain  and  the  most  pleasure;  with  the 
development  of  the  intellect  it  is  guided  into  the  channel  of 
the  greatest  economy  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  indi- 
vidual ;  but  with  experience  in  society  there  is  developed  the 
moral  and  social  senses,  and  the  will,  in  the  form  of  religion, 
is  guided  through  them  into  the  channels  of  the  greatest 
possible  economy  from  the  point  of  view  of  society,  and 
reaches  the  greatest  degree  of  freedom  possible  in  all  nature 
in  the  perfect  individual.  Through  the  intellect  the  animal 
organism  has  the  power  of  varying  its  actions  by  substi- 
tuting past  experience  in  the  form  of  ideas  for  present  stim- 
ulus. The  will  is  free  from  present  experience  by  being 
situate  in  an  organism  that  can  use  the  residua,  not  only  of 
its  own  experience,  but  of  all  the  past  experience  of  its 
ancestors,  as  recorded  in  its  brain  structures,  to  determine 
each  and  every  one  of  its  actions;  nevertheless,  the  animal's 
actions  are  invariably  the  result  of  efficient  causes,  though 
many  removes  away,  and  all  that  the  wonderful  apparatus  of 
mentality  does  is  to  secure  the  most  economic  expenditure 
of  energy  possible  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  individual 
organism. 

Freedom  consists  in  being  able  not  only  to  let  the  facts, 
ideas,  in  one's  own  life  determine  what  one  shall  do  when 
contemplating  a  given  action,  but  being  able  to  determine 
the  action  from  the  instincts  and  structures  one  inherits 
from  one's  ancestors.  This  choice  of  method  in  the  expen- 
diture of  energy  is  the  freedom  of  the  will,  and  differs  only 
from  the  blind  expenditure  of  energy  of  inorganic  nature  by 
multiplying  the  number  of  the  possible  lines  of  expenditure 
of  energy.  The  line  of  the  least  resistance  is  taken  in  each 
case,  only  in  the  case  of  the  animal  there  are  more  oppor- 


ASPECTS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MORALITY        351 

tunities  of  expenditure,  and  in  the  case  of  the  perfect  social 
organism  still  more  opportunities  of  expenditure.  One  is 
held  responsible  to  choose  the  most  economical  method  of 
expending  energy  possible  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  indi- 
vidual, and  if  one  does  not  he  is  said  to  make  a  mistake,  is 
ignorant,  or  insane.  Society  is  held  responsible  to  choose 
the  most  economical  method  of  expending  energy  from  the 
point  of  view  of  knowledge,  the  social  sense ;  and  if  it  does 
not  the  resulting  civilization  is  barbarism,  savagery,  semi- 
civilization:  civilization  depending  upon  the  amount  of 
knowledge  society  uses  in  expending  its  energy  until 
socialization  is  reached,  when  society  will  expend  all  of  its 
energy  according  to  scientific  knowledge,  and  the  greatest 
economy  of  energy  possible  will  be  reached.  In  physical 
inorganic  nature  there  is  no  choice  in  the  method  of  the 
expenditure  of  energy,  there  is  no  mistake,  all  action  follows 
invariably  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  of  the  con- 
tending energies  determined  by  the  one  experience,  the  one 
stimulus. 

When  the  expenditure  of  human  energy  is  controlled, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  moral  and  social  senses,  when 
internal  energy  reaches  the  developed  form  known  as  relig- 
ion, then  its  expenditure  is  capable  of  the  highest  possible 
degree  of  economy ;  for  then  it  can  be  expended  solely  for 
the  good  of  the  whole  human  race  as  determined  by  the 
highest  form  of  knowledge,  realized  in  the  greatest  institu- 
tions capable  of  being  invented  by  man.  Society  in  this 
form  has  never  been  realized ;  but  it  has  been  prophesied  sym- 
bolically in  all  the  religions  that  have  created  great  nations. 

In  human  society  the  individual  is  held  responsible  for  the 
expenditure  of  his  energies,  not  from  the  point  of  view  of 
his  intellect,  his  individuality,  but  in  opposition  to  it,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  his  moral  and  social  senses.  Man's 
social  nature  opposes  his  individual  nature,  and  fu-rnishes 
him  forms  of  expending  energy  in  opposition  to  it  of  the 


352        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

utmost  utility  to  the  race;  such  forms  being  all  of  the  vir- 
tues, in  opposition  to  the  expenditure  of  energy  through  his 
individual  nature,  ending  in  all  the  vices.  In  this  highest 
form  of  the  expenditure  of  human  energy  the  whole  mechan- 
ism of  society  is  within  the  individual  in  the  form  of  his 
moral  and  social  senses,  his  social  nature,  and  if  he  does  not 
expend  his  energy  in  accordance  with  society's  forms,  his 
conscience  coerces  him  with  the  most  acute  pain  known  to 
human  nature;  and  if  he  does  so  expend  his  energies,  then 
duty  rewards  him  with  the  most  exquisite  joy  known  to  the 
human  heart,  religion.  The  individual's  responsibility  to 
society  is  thus  established. 

Considering  the  will  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  past, 
with  its  accumulated  avenues  of  expenditure,  beginning  with 
its  primitive  form  as  a  chemical  energy,  following  the  law  of 
action  and  reaction,  and  ending  with  a  religion  based  on 
morality,  determined  by  the  social  sense«of  scientific  knowl- 
edge, comprising  all  of  the  concepts  the  human  race  has 
been  able  to  accumulate  in  its  long  history,  each  successive 
generation  of  the  race  makes  the  will  more  and  more  subject 
to  the  past;  but,  considering  the  will  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  present,  it  is  this  very  subjection  to  the  past,  consist- 
ing of  ideas,  knowledge,  laws  and  institutions,  that  gives  the 
will  its  ability  to  expend  itself  in  less  and  less  resisting  chan- 
nels, so  that  freedom  of  the  will  does  not  mean  human 
energy  that  is  completely  undetermined,  but  human  energy 
with  the  best  possible  determination.  Freedom  is  a  growth, 
an  organic  product,  a  social  achievement.  The  individual 
is  free  through  ideas;  society  is  free  through  knowledge, 
institutions,  laws.  The  individual  without  ideas,  and  society 
without  knowledge  are  chained  by  the  physical  laws  of 
motion,  and  as  a  result  waste  their  energies  in  opposition 
and  neutralization;  but  with  ideas  and  knowledge,  they 
expend  their  energies  with  the  greatest  possible  economy  and 
attain  what  we  call  freedom. 


ASPECTS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MORALITY        353 

II 

In  whatever  way  an  organism  acts  once,  it  has  a  tendency 
under  similar  conditions  to  act  in  the  same  way  again.  In 
time  this  tendency  becomes  a  habit,  the  habit  grows  into 
character.  The  individual  is  responsible  for  his  character, 
because  through  his  intellect  he  can  vary  his  actions,  and  his 
actions  determine  his  character.  A  person's  character  is  the 
residua  of  all  of  his  actions.  No  one  starts  with  a  bad 
character;  we  start  with  none.  Actions  from  our  animal 
nature  are  all  we  are  able  to  perform  at  the  start-out  of  our 
existence,  for  society  has  had  no  opportunity  to  develop  our 
moral  and  social  senses,  so  naturally  our  actions  in  infancy 
and  youth  are  not  so  good  as  in  manhood  and  womanhood. 
As  the  individual's  embryonic  development  is  an  epitome  of 
the  animal  series  whence  ne  sprang,  so  his  infancy  and  youth 
are  an  epitome  of  the  race,  beginning  in  savagery;  and  if 
there  is  normal  development,  ending  in  perfect  socialization — 
a  life  motived  by  true  religion  and  guided  by  science.  While 
the  individual  inherits  the  character  structure  of  his  ances- 
tors, yet  through  the  wonderful  apparatus  of  his  mentality, 
this  structure  is  adapted  to  whatever  kind  of  social  organism 
m  which  the  individual  may  happen  to  be  developed.  Char- 
acter is  a  product  of  actions,  as  knowledge  is  a  product  of 
experience  and  education.  It  takes  one  just  as  long  a  time 
to  become  good  as  wise ;  and  one  is  no  more  a  result  of  the 
will  than  the  other. 

Character  is  the  great  safeguard  of  the  individual  in  secu- 
ring happiness  in  life,  for  by  it  he  can  insure  himself  against 
taking  a  line  of  action  not  fully  in  accord  with  his  moral 
and  social  senses,  so  that  when  some  great  temptation  comes 
he  will  be  able  to  withstand  it,  whereas  if  it  had  come  early 
in  life  before  he  had  developed  his  character  he  would  have 
fallen.  Owing  to  our  theological  social  sense  being  so  wide 
of  the  facts  in  nature  and  society,  so  untrue,  one's  character 


354        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

receives  little  help  from  general  education,  when  character- 
production  should  be  its  main  object. 

The  moral  sense  directs  human  energy  into  certain  chan- 
nels, the  virtues,  by  the  imposition  of  punishment,  imprison- 
ment, disgrace,  death,  as  a  penalty  for  expending  energy 
according  to  one's  individual  nature;  or  by  reward  of  prefer- 
ment in  society,  honor,  fame,  power,  for  virtuous  actions, 
energy  expended  according  to  the  moral  sense.  At  the 
beginning  the  punishment  and  reward  are  external,  but  such 
is  the  nature  of  nervous  tissue  that  external  energies  regis- 
tering themselves  in  it  leave  residua  of  themselves,  which, 
after  years  of  development,  have  the  same  function  of  con- 
trolling and  directing  internal  energy  as  the  external  stimulus 
had  at  the  beginning ;  so  there  grows  up  in  us  a  court  of 
punishment,  due  to  external  punishment,  in  the  form  of  the 
acute  pain  of  conscience,  and  a  court  of  reward  in  the  form  of 
self-approbation,  self-approval,  the  ecstasy  of  religion,  to 
determine  the  expenditure  of  all  the  energies  of  the  individual 
in  his  myriad  actions.  There  is  nothing  mysterious  about 
this  origination  and  development  of  the  moral  sense.  It  is 
the  way  the  senses  and  the  intellect  were  developed  in  the 
animal  organism,  only  the  energies  acting  as  stimuli  are  differ- 
ent ;  and  it  is  also  the  way  the  social  sense  is  developed,  only 
the  energy  producing  it  is  also  different.  To  this  particular 
property  of  nervous  tissue,  that  it  is  able  to  register  external 
stimuli,  and  that  the  residua  are  able  to  perform  the  func- 
tion of  the  original  energies,  is  due  the  senses  and  the  intel- 
lect, and  the  moral  and  social  senses  of  man.  But  this  prop- 
erty of  nervous  tissue  is  only  a  highly  developed  trait  of  all 
matter.  In  physical  inorganic  nature  it  is  seen  in  the  property 
of  matter  that  receives  external  energies  with,  no  doubt,  slight 
tendencies  to  registration;  in  organic  matter  we  see  it  pro- 
duce the  senses  and  the  intellect ;  in  society  we  see  it  produce 
the  moral  and  social  senses.  Nature  is  one.  There  is  noth- 
ing new  under  the  sun ;  only  duplications  and  reduplications. 


ASPECTS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MORALITY        355 

Man's  individual  nature  and  his  moral  nature  are  antithet- 
ical. While  his  individual  nature  is  responsible  to  society, 
his  social  nature  is  responsible  to  his  individual  nature.  An 
individual  who  is  all  vice  and  sin  suffers  from  the  stings  of 
conscience,  his  moral  nature  demanding  the  performance  of 
its  functions;  an  individual  all  virtue  and  holiness  suffers 
temptations,  his  individual  nature  demanding  the  perform- 
ance of  its  functions.  There  is  an  adjustment  between 
man's  two  natures,  by  his  social  nature  taking  control  and 
permitting  individual  functions  within  certain  prescribed 
limits.  All  actions  outside  of  these  limits  are  crimes, 
wrongs,  sins.  That  a  man  can  sin  on  the  side  of  virtue  is  a 
proposition  which,  so  far  in  the  history  of  the  world,  has 
never  been  upheld,  nevertheless,  it  is  a  fact.  If  the  animal 
functions  of  the  body  are  not  performed  within  prescribed 
limits  they  react  upon  one's  social  nature,  and  one  deteri- 
orates morally  by  trying  to  be  too  moral.  One's  individual 
nature  is  not  to  be  despised  because  it  is  subordinate  to  his 
social  nature.  The  proper  adjustment  of  the  two  natures 
results  in  the  highest  form  of  life,  not  the  exclusive  living 
of  one's  social  nature.  Here  is  where  Schopenhauer  went 
astray  in  pessimism. 

Morality,  due  to  the  moral  sense  alone,  is  no  more  compe- 
tent to  direct  human  energy  successfully  and  economically 
than  touch  in  the  animal  organism  without  the  assistance  of 
other  senses  and  the  intellect  is  able  to  direct  its  internal 
energies  successfully  and  economically.  If  there  were  no 
other  method  of  guiding  human  energy  than  by  the  moral 
sense,  society  would  stop  with  guidance  from  present  feel- 
ing, and  civilization  would  be  forever,  as  it  is  now,  a  blind 
conflict.  Just  as  the  animal  organism  utilizes  past  expe- 
rience in  the  form  of  ideas  and  instincts,  so  the  social 
organism  uses  past  experience  in  the  form  of  knowledge,  tho 
experience  of  the  individual  with  the  race  stored  in  language 
and  institutions.  Society  will  some  day  see  its  way.  Char- 


356        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

acter  is  to  the  individual  organism  what  institutions  are  to 
the  social  organism;  and  as  character  is  a  result  of  the 
actions  of  the  animal  organism,  and  the  animal  organism  is 
responsible  for  its  character  because  it  can  vary  its  actions 
through  ideas ;  so  the  institutions  of  society  are  a  result  of 
the  actions  of  society,  and  society  is  responsible  to  the  indi- 
vidual for  its  institutions  because  it  can  vary  its  actions 
through  knowledge  and  thus  create  institutions  that  will 
secure  the  most  economic  expenditure  of  energy  possible. 
Thus  responsibility  both  individual  and  social  is  a  matter  of 
knowledge  and  not  free  will.  Or  it  is  knowledge  that  makes 
man  free;  for  all  that  knowledge  consists  of  is  different 
methods  of  expending  energy,  and  all  that  freedom  consists 
of  is  being  able  to  expend  energy  along  the  line  of  the  least 
possible  resistance.  Man  is  responsible,  not  on  account  of 
his  freedom,  but  on  account  of  his  knowledge;  for  it  is  his 
knowledge  that  makes  him  free.  The  same  is  true  of 
society 

III 

As  the  individual  is  responsible  to  society  for  his  charac- 
ter, because  he  can  vary  his  actions  through  his  intellect, 
and  thus  determine  his  character,  so  society  is  responsible 
to  the  individual  for  its  institutions,  because  it  can  vary  its 
actions  through  knowledge,  and  thus  determine  its  institu- 
tions. In  society  to-day  the  individual  is  ostensibly  respon- 
sible for  his  actions;  but  he  is  really  responsible  for  his 
character,  because  it  is  character  that  makes  one  virtuous. 
Virtue  is  a  question  of  heart.  The  substance  of  sin  and 
crime  is  not  to  be  caught  and  convicted,  but  the  desire  to 
wrong  some  one,  the  wish  to  expend  one's  energy  inimical  to 
society  whether  one  does  it  or  not.  It  is  the  mental  thief 
and  dishonest  man,  and  the  psychically  unchaste  and  deceit- 
ful woman  that  are  really  the  most  sinful  and  most  criminal ; 
for  they  think  they  are  virtuous  and  upright  because  they 


ASPECTS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MORALITY        35? 

have  not  acted  out  their  vile  characters,  whereas  those  who 
have  fallen  may  have  fallen,  not  from  lack  of  character,  but 
from  hard  adverse  circumstances.  Morality  is  psychical, 
not  physical.  A  person  may  live  an  apparently  blameless ' 
life  and  yet  be  morally  rotten.  Too  much  of  our  virtue  is 
lack  of  opportunity,  cowardice,  impotency.  The  truly 
moral  person  is  one  who  has  been  tried,  and  even  fallen,  yet 
lived  and  loved  the  virtuous  life.  It  is  character  as  well  as 
conduct  that  should  be  used  in  classifying  human  beings. 

On  the  other  hand,  society  is  responsible  for  its  conduct, 
no  matter  the  form  of  its  institutions;  for  a  nation  may  have 
democratic  institutions  and  yet  indulge  in  the  most  tyran- 
nical and  unjust  treatment  of  the  masses.  It  is  what  a 
nation  does,  or  permits,  no  matter  the  form  of  its  institu- 
tions, that  brands  it  as  savage  or  crowns  it  as  civilized ;  and 
England  cannot  have  one  pauper  in  every  five  persons  in  the 
city  of  London,  or  the  United  States,  through  unjust  laws, 
let  the  producing  class  retain  but  one-fifth  of  the  fruits  of  its 
labor,  and  still  stand  before  the  world  as  not  morally  ancl 
socially  culpable,  no  matter  their  protestations  of  being  the 
greatest  nations  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  It  is  facts  as  well 
as  institutions  that  should  be  used  in  classifying  nations. 

There  is  this  difference  between  individual  and  social 
responsibility ;  society  controls  the  individual  primarily  by 
force,  whereas  the  individual  enforces  his  power  over  society 
by  ideas.  Society  makes  the  individual  conform  to  it  by 
physical  coercion ;  the  individual  makes  society  conform  to 
his  ideas  by  mental  coercion.  This  conflict  is  going  on  con- 
stantly in  a  thousand  different  ways,  but  is  only  noticeable 
when  some  great  individual  arises  and  takes  the  race  by 
mental  storm  and  changes  it  to  his  way  of  thinking,  as'an 
Aristotle,  a  Bacon,  a  Marx,  a  Comte,  a  Darwin.  More  often 
the  race  controls  the  straying  fancies  of  the  individual,  and 
makes  him  feel  and  think  along  conservative  lines. 

But  while   society   primarily  coerces    the  individual   by 


358        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

force,  yet  it  is  the  greatest  teacher,  because  it  makes  its 
assistance  to  its  pupils  unnecessary  in  that  its  teaching  cre- 
ates within  us  the  moral  and  social  senses,  which  become  so 
acute  that  society  is  perfectly  reproduced  in  us ;  and  it  is 
utterly  impossible  for  our  individual  natures  to  expend  their 
energies  in  opposition  to  society,  for  there  stands  the  all- 
feeling  heart  of  the  moral  sense  and  the  all-seeing  eye  of  the 
social  sense  to  detect  and  condemn  us  or  to  approve  and 
reward  us.  Society's  coercion  begins  with  the  physical,  but 
ends  with  the  highest  form  of  the  psychical. 

And  while  the  coercion  of  society  by  the  individual  is 
mental  at  the  start-out,  yet  society  always  resents  it  by 
physical  opposition.  The  facts  of  nature  or  the  hardships 
of  life  originate  in  some  specialized  individual  a  great  idea 
or  an  acute  moral  sense,  and  he  promulgates  his  views  to  the 
world.  If  he  is  a  common  individual  and  his  ideas  are  not 
wide  of  the  type,  he  is  ridiculed  into  conformity;  if  he  is  a 
great  individual,  has  a  deep  insight  into  things  and  civiliza- 
tion, he  is  persecuted  by  neglect,  contempt,  then  physical 
opposition,  which  often  ends  in  death,  martyrdom. 

The  race's  effect  upon  the  individual  is  static ;  the  indi- 
vidual's effect  upon  the  race  is  dynamic.  The  race  holds 
the  individual  responsible  for  order ;  the  individual  holds  the 
race  responsible  for  progress.  The  individual  is  called  a 
reformer.  The  race's  curbing  action  upon  the  individual  is 
conservatism.  The  race  seeks  to  maintain  the  type  of  the 
species.  The  individual  seeks  to  vary  it. 

At  one  time  in  our  lives  the  racial  tendencies  may  be 
strong,  at  another  the  individual.  Charles  A.  Dana  in  his 
youth  was  a  member  of  the  Brook-Farm  experiment.  In  his 
old  age  he  was  bitterly  conservative.  Lincoln  when  a  boy 
wrote  a  book  similar  to  Tom  Paine's  Age  of  Reason.  He 
became  a  deist  and  believer  in  prayer  towards  the  latter  part 
of  his  life.  Bismarck  was  a  radical  in  his  youth,  but  madly 
conservative  in  his  old  age.  The  same  is  true  of  Edmund 


ASPECTS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MORALITY        359 

Burke.  Often  the  father  will  be  the  radical,  the  son  the 
reactionary,  or  vice  versa.  Witness  Marcus  Aurelius  and 
his  son  Commodus,  and  Robert  G.  Ingersoll  and  his  reverend 
orthodox  father. 

The  race  is  certainly  responsible  to  the  individual.  He 
may  not  be  able  to  establish  the  doctrine,  but  he  often 
enough  gives  his  life  in  attempting  it.  Just  as  a  teacher 
looks  upon  a  pupil  with  shame  who  does  not  acquit  himself 
creditably,  so  will  society  some  time  look  with  shame  upon 
all  unhappy  and  imperfect  individuals.  The  disgrace  of  the 
crime  will  not  only  be  with  the  individual  but  with  the  com- 
munity at  large  for  producing  conditions  that  make  crime 
possible.  The  time  will  come  when  social  consciousness  will 
be  as  sensitive  to  individual  acts  as  individual  consciousness 
is  now  sensitive  to  individual  acts ;  then  social  responsibility 
will  be  equal  to  individual  responsibility,  and  the  moral  and 
social  senses  will  not  only  control  the  individual,  but  society  as 
well.  Now  society  controls  the  individual  by  the  moral  and 
social  senses;  but  then  the  moral  and  social  senses  will  be 
perfect,  and  all  human  energy  will  be  expended  along  the  line 
of  the  least  possible  resistance,  and  social  control  will  be  per- 
fect. We  see  adumbrations  of  this  coming  society  to-day. 
With  what  shame  does  every  community  in  the  United  States 
look  upon  an  instance  of  moh  law !  Is  not  the  ignorance  of 
the  Russian  peasant  a  disgrace  to  all  Russia?  And  is  not 
London's  poverty  a  disgrace  to  all  England?  The  world  as 
a  whole  should  be  ashamed  of  its  theological  social  sense, 
with  its  lack  of  intellectual  support  resulting  in  our  horrible 
adjustment  to  nature  and  society,  poverty,  the  struggle  for 
existence,  panics,  and  war! 

The  reason  we  cannot  think  out  a  perfect  system  of  society 
is  on  account  of  the  many  thought-stopping  theories  in  the 
social  sense  of  to-day,  Christianity.  We  do  not  look  at 
nature,  life,  mind  and  society  from  a  naturalistic  point  of 
view,  and  we  cannot;  and  when  we  attempt  it,  as  I  have  in 


360        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

this  book,  there  comes  crowding  into  our  thought  here  and 
there  reminiscences  of  the  old  theory  to  mar  the  expression 
of  the  new.  It  is  impossible  for  one  holding  the  theological 
social  sense  to  understand  the  relation  that  society  sustains 
to  man  or  man  to  society,  because  God  stands  for  society,  and 
it  would  be  absurd  to  say  that  omnipotent  God  is  responsible 
to  man.  Society  and  the  individual  are  mutual  creators,  and 
hold  to  each  other  mutual  responsibilities.  It  is  true  that  in 
the  past  the  doctrine  of  social  responsibility  has  not  been 
developed,  because  it  has  not  been  differentiated  from 
responsibility  to  God,  the  figurative  representative  of  society; 
still  the  individual  in  all  ages  has  maintained  his  belief  in 
social  responsibility  by  dying  a  martyr's  death  in  trying  to 
establish  it. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  get  man  to  attempt  to  conceive 
what  society  really  is.  He  is  so  fond  of  stopping  with 
explanations  beginning  with  himself  instead  of  ending  with 
himself.  But  the  time  will  come  when  man  will  contem- 
plate the  phenomena  of  his  own  nature  and  the  phenomena 
of  society  as  a  product  of  the  crude  workings  of  the  ceaseless 
adjustment  of  the  energies  of  nature,  and  trace  everything 
to  its  primal  source ;  and  he  will  see  through  nature,  life, 
mind  and  society  as  we  now  see  through  a  product  of  art. 
Then  the  social  organism  and  the  animal  organism  can  fix 
their  respective  responsibilities  unincumbered  by  anything 
but  the  facts,  and  the  perfect  expenditure  of  energy  will  be 
reached. 

IV 

Christianity  as  a  social  sense  is  largely  unsocial.  It  com- 
pletely ignores  the  organized  existence  of  society  as  a  factor 
in  individual  development.  It  does  not  recognize  that  gov- 
ernments can  do  wrong.  The  king  is  of  divine  appointment. 
Primitive  Christianity  solved  the  problem  of  expending 
human  energy  by  refusing  to  expend  it  at  all.  But  such  a 


ASPECTS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MORALITY        361 

suicidal  social  sense  as  monasticism  could  not  possibly  last 
very  long,  and  Christianity  has  gradually  abandoned  it, 
until  to-day  there  is  no  difference  between  a  Christian  and 
the  most  extreme  worldling.  Christianity  has  much  to  say 
about  what  the  individual  shall  do  for  society,  nothing  about 
what  society  shall  do  for  the  individual.  It  is  well  enough 
adapted  to  unenlightened  peoples,  living  a  simple  existence, 
understanding  things  only  symbolically;  but  for  oriented 
humanity,  living  in  a  vast  and  complicated  civilization,  it  is 
absolutely  inadequate.  Christianity  should  be  rejected 
because  it  does  not  meet  the  requirements  of  a  world-religion. 
It  does  not  protect,  develop  and  perfect  the  race.  Social 
responsibility  has  been  the  demand  of  the  individual  through 
the  ages.  Time  and  again  has  he  given  his  life  to  establish 
his  right  that  society  shall  conform  to  the  highest  concepts 
of  the  way  human  energy  shall  be  expended.  The  struggle 
is  still  on.  The  hope  of  the  race  is  to  make  society  amen- 
able to  progressive  verifiable  ideas,  as  the  race  has  always 
made  the  individual  amenable  to  law,  order,  right  living. 

With  the  abandonment  of  a  belief  in  God,  the  individual 
can  consciously  discover  flaws  in  society,  where  heretofore  he 
did  so  only  instinctively;  for  God  being  deemed  perfect  and 
the  author  of  everything,  how  could  the  clay  turn  upon  the 
potter  and  criticize  Him  for  His  workmanship?  But  when 
everything  is  known  to  be  a  natural  product,  due  to  the 
blind  battlings  of  the  energies  of  nature,  man  has  a  right, 
not  only  to  improve  nature  (no  doubt  once  considered  sacri- 
lege) but  to  improve  himself  (also  once  sacrilege)  and  most  of 
all  to  improve  society,  to  improve  his  moral  and  social 
senses,  which  is  sacrilege  to-day.  It  seems  preposterous  for 
the  individual  consciously  to  point  out  the  imperfections  of 
society  and  demand  perfections ;  but  under  scientific  moral 
and  social  senses  we  will  see  the  imperfections  of  poverty,  the 
struggle  for  existence  and  war  disappear,  and  cooperation, 
peace  and  socialization  will  follow. 


362      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

It  is  a  natural  right  of  the  individual  that  all  social  insti- 
tutions be  a  product  of  public,  corporate  knowledge,  as  it  is 
a  natural  right  of  society  that  the  individual's  character  be 
a  product  of  actions  guided  by  the  highest  concepts  of  right 
and  wrong,  truth  and  error,  concepts  realizing  the  greatest 
economy  of  energy,  the  highest  concepts  derived  from  verifi- 
able representations  of  nature  and  experience  with  human 
feelings  and  human  ideas.  It  is  a  natural  right  of  the 
individual  to  demand  that  the  institutions  controlling  him 
be  not  incrustations  from  the  dead  past,  but  flexible  institu- 
tions based  on  verifiable 'knowledge,  which  will  direct  the 
energies  of  society  so  that  the  individual  will  have  the 
greatest  possible  scope  for  the  development  of  his  nature 
both  individual  and  social.  It  is  the  right  of  the  individual 
to  demand  that  the  social  organism  of  which  he  is  a  unit  be 
of  as  high  a  form  of  development  as  its  factors  are  compe- 
tent to  make  it.  It  is  a  natural  right  of  the  individual  to 
demand  of  society  that  its  life  be  as  pure,  as  high,  as  intel- 
ligent, as  perfect,  be  as  free  from  the  tragedies  of  civiliza- 
tion, panics,  poverty,  the  struggle  for  existence,  war,  as  the 
individual's  morality  is  pure,  high  and  perfect  and  free  from 
vice,  sin  and  crime. 

But  there  is  a  difference;  if  the  individual  does  not  live 
in  accord  with  society,  society  coerces  him;  whereas  if 
society  does  not  live  in  accord  with  the  individual's  high 
concept  of  its  functions,  all  he  can  do  is  to  attempt  to  force 
it  by  promulgating  his  ideas.  Such  conduct  often  ends  in 
the  individual's  sacrificing  his  life  in  martyrdom,  thereby 
advertising  the  truth  of  his  ideas,  and  causing  all  society  to 
adopt  them  by  imitation  and  thus  have  the  race  become  as 
he  would  have  it.  This  is  the  way  truth  spreads  throughout 
primitive  society.  It  is  strange  that  an  idea  before  it  can 
spread  throughout  society  must  begin  its  career  by  causing 
the  death  of  its  originator.  Nothing  can  better  demonstrate 
the  absence  of  all  intelligence  in  the  origination  and  develop- 


ASPECTS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MOKALITY        363 

ment  of  humanity.     It  is  purely  a  product  of  blind  ener. 
gies. 

Society  makes  the  individual  responsible  to  it  by  punish- 
ment, by  injuring  him;  whereas  the  individual  makes 
society  responsible  to  him  by  sacrifice,  service,  work,  by 
returning  good  for  evil. 

There  is  no  more  significant  fact  in  all  history  than, 
martyrdom.  It  is  world-wide,  and  has  existed  from  time 
immemorial.  It  alone  ought  to  teach  our  rank  individual- 
ists that  in  every  human  heart  there  dwells  an  instinct  of 
fellowship,  a  social  instinct  that  far  surpasses  the  instinct  of 
selfishness  in  producing  happiness  as  a  dynamic  in  human 
society.  It  is  by  martyrdom  that  the  individual  enforces 
social  responsibility.  Nothing  but  the  blind  instinct  of 
religion  could  ever  induce  one  to  become  a  martyr.  It  is  the 
greatest  instinct  we  possess,  the  instinct  to  protect,  to  perfect 
the  race  by  service,  if  need  be  by  sacrifice ;  by  life,  if  need 
be  by  death ! 

Martyrdom  is  the  fructifying  act  of  the  elements  of  prog- 
ress and  the  elements  of  order  which  produce  the  social 
organism.  We  see  it  throughout  all  history,  beginning  with 
Protagoras  and  ending  with  the  persecution  of  social  reform- 
ers the  world  over  to-day.  And  the  joy  at  this  birth  of  the 
race,  though  the  death  of  the  martyr,  is  the  greatest,  the 
most  exquisite,  the  most  ecstatic  possible  in  the  nature  of 
things.  The  satisfaction  of  the  instinct  of  self-preservation 
is  joy,  the  satisfaction  of  love  is  happiness,  but  this  satisfac- 
tion of  the  instinct  of  religion  transcends  human  expression. 
It  is  more  than  glory,  more  than  ecstasy,  more  than  bliss. 
It  is  the  peace  that  passeth  all  understanding. 

The  great  difficulty  in  the  conflict  between  individual  and 
social  responsibility  in  society  has  ever  been  to  make  of 
society  a  moving  equilibrium,  the  individual  promoting 
progress,  society  maintaining  order,  growing,  developing 
and  finally  reaching  perfection.  It  is  most  difficult  to 


304      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

modify  old  institutions  to  new  knowledge,  the  function  of 
the  specialized  individual.  But  when  the  race  is  looked  at 
as  a  whole,  total  change  has  been  effected  in  many  institu- 
tions; for  example,  marriage,  industry,  government.  Who 
would  believe  that  the  knights  of  the  Middle  Ages  could 
develop  into  the  capitalists  of  to-day?  That  the  Grecian 
love  of  knowledge  could  give  way  to  universal  love  of  gold? 
Well,  as  these  changes  have  been  wrought  in  society,  may 
we  not  hope  that  changes  equally  as  great  for  good  may  be 
wrought  in  the  coming  ages?  John  Stuart  Mill  said  that 
men  could  be  taught  to  dig  for  the  state  as  well  as  fight  for 
it.  It  is  only  a  question  of  moral  sense.  When  digging  for 
the  race  is  as  necessary  to  its  existence  as  fighting  for  it  was — 
when  our  fighting  moral  sense  was  originated — then  a  moral 
sense  will  be  produced  which  will  cause  men  to  dig  and  delve 
for  the  state;  and  this  menial  labor  will  bring  the  individual 
the  same  joy  that  the  glory  of  war  does  now,  or  rather  did 
when  man  was  a  savage ;  for  mankind  has  ceased  to  enjoy  war. 

And  the  time  will  come  when  oriented  society  itself  will 
change,  and  progress  as  well  as  order  be  a  duty  enjoined  by 
religion  in  its  most  conservative  form.  Oriented  society 
will  recognize  the  right  of  the  individual  to  demand  social 
reform,  and  the  anomaly  of  anomalies,  progress,  will  be 
initiated  by  society  itself.  These  are  not  only  probabilities 
and  possibilities,  but  actual  certainties  of  the  future.  It  is 
conscious  control  of  society  by  knowledge  that  will  realize 
individual  perfection,  and  thereby  social  perfection;  then 
the  blind  method  of  martyrdom  will  have  ceased  to  be  and  the 
race  will  reach  the  same  results  by  education  and  discipline. 
Perfection  of  humanity  hitherto  has  been  only  a  dream  to  be 
realized  in  another  world,  yet  history  shows  a  gradual  evolu- 
tion of  the  race.  It  is  a  scientific  certainty  that  when  the 
race  is  once  oriented  it  will  speedily  reach  perfection  here 
on  earth. 

It  is  very  necessary  that  at  no  time  too  great  a  variation 


ASPECTS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MORALITY        365 

should  be  introduced  into  human  institutions.  If  too  great 
a  variation  is  attempted,  revolution  instead  of  evolution 
results.  The  introduction  of  Christianity,  blending  the 
Hebrew  civilization  with  that  of  Greece  and  Rome-,  is  a  good 
example  of  too  radical  a  change  being  introduced  into 
human  evolution.  The  Dark  Ages  followed,  and  not  until 
the  last  five  centuries  do  we  see  any  good  resulting  from  the 
marriage  of  these  two  civilizations. 

To-day  we  see  scientific  knowledge  transforming,  meta- 
morphosing the  different  nations  of  the  earth,  rapidly  mak- 
ing the  world  one  vast  social  organism.  Let  us  hope  it  may 
be  done  without  any  more  retardation ;  that  the  race  as  a 
whole  may  learn  to  expend  all  of  its  energies  in  the  most 
economical  manner  possible;  that  it  may  all  come  about 
gradually,  as  the  growth  of  a  child  to  a  man,  the  growth  of 
a  city  into  a  nation,  the  nations  of  the  earth  into  a  race. 


The  only  way  to  get  the  laws  of  the  animal  organism 
executed  is  to  have  the  organism  execute  them  itself ;  so  the 
only  way  to  get  the  laws  of  society  executed  is  to  have 
society  execute  them  itself.  Suppose  that  when  an  indi- 
vidual violated  one  of  the  laws  of  his  animal  nature  that  his 
organism  did  not  have  the  power  to  enforce  its  laws  by  caus- 
ing him  pain,  but  that  the  social  organism,  for  example, 
would  have  to  find  out  the  violation  and  punish  him  for  it, 
would  the  animal  organism  ever  reach  a  very  high  degree  of 
development  through  such  a  roundabout  method  of  govern- 
ment? Would  not  most  human  organisms  become  extinct, 
because  society  could  not  protect  them  by  the  proper  disci- 
pline? Or  suppose  the  punishment  was  put  off  until  after 
the  animal  had  ceased  to  live,  and  be  administered  in 
another  world.  Would  such  a  system  of  government  be  of 
any  use  to  the  animal  at  all?  This  is  the  kind  of  govern- 
ment the  theological  social  sense  gives  society  to-day.  In 


366       THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

the  face  of  the  lack  of  all  adequate  remedies  for  our  social 
tragedies,  it  is  the  teaching  of  our  theological  social  sense 
that  the  source  of  retribution  for  treasons  and  wrongs  which 
individuals  and  corporations  commit  against  society,  by 
using  society  as  a  means  of  private  gain,  is  the  God  of  the 
universe  and  not  society  itself,  and  the  punishment  is  in 
another  world,  not  in  this.  The  facts  are,  this  concept  is 
exactly  opposite  to  the  truth.  Nature  enforces  its  laws,  the 
individual  enforces  his  laws,  and  society  must  enforce  its 
laws.  An  organism  must  perform  its  functions  or  else  cease 
to  exist.  There  is  nothing  gained  to-day,  and  much  lost,  by 
keeping  up  the  fiction  of  a  God-control  of  society,  and  not 
show  how  society  controls  itself  by  laws,  just  as  natural  as 
the  laws  of  the  individual  or  the  laws  of  nature.  God  does 
not  control  nations,  and  none  know  it  better  than  those  who 
preach  the  doctrine  most,  its  chief  offenders,  kings,  emperors, 
rulers. 

The  imperfections  of  the  social  organism  obscure  its 
functions,  but  even  to-day  there  is  no  reason  whatever  for 
retaining  the  theological  social  sense  when  we  see  that  it  has 
served  its  purpose  and  is  perfectly  effete.  If  the  social 
organism  cannot  control  the  energies  of  its  units  so  that  its 
energies  will  be  expended  in  the  most  economical  manner 
possible  from  the  point  of  view  of  society,  it  will  cease  to 
exist,  and  another  will  be  formed  out  of  its  parts  that  can 
do  so. 

But,  while  this  means  that  society  must  punish  its 
offenders  now  in  this  life,  it  does  not  mean  that  society 
must  enforce  its  decrees  by  physical  coercion.  It  means 
that  the  social  organism  must  be  an  organism  complete  in 
itself.  Society's  creation  of  the  moral  and  social  senses, 
whereby  the  individual  has  within  his  own  mind  the  means 
of  executing  social  decrees,  is  perfectly  consonant  with  social 
control ;  in  fact,  social  control  cannot  exist  in  any  other  way. 
The  social  organism  cannot  be  a  social  organism  except  by 


ASPECTS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MORALITY        367 

having  located  in  each  individual  a  sense  whereby  all  Immun- 
ity is  in  touch  with  the  individual,  and  the  individual  in 
touch  with  all  humanity,  a  sense  whereby  the  individual  sees 
all  humanity  and  all  humanity  sees  the  individual;  an 
adjustment  which  will  result  in  the  expenditure  of  the  ener- 
gies of  the  individual  determined  by  the  race  as  a  whole. 
When  society  is  constituted  of  such  individuals  it  will  be 
perfect,  and  the  functions  of  the  social  organism  will  be 
known  and  performed  as  consciously  as  the  functions  of  the 
animal  organism  are  to-day. 

But  to-day  the  greatest  social  tragedies  can  exist,  and 
society,  owing  to  the  theological  social  sense,  makes  no 
effort  whatever  to  remedy  them.  What  is  the  outcome? 
The  vices  and  tragedies  of  civilization.  Society  is  respon- 
sible for  all  the  narrow,  mean,  miserable,  dwarfed  lives  due 
to  poverty;  for  society  is  responsible  for  poverty.  It  is  the 
duty  of  society,  through  public  corporate  knowledge,  to 
create  laws  and  institutions  which  will  enable  each  indi- 
vidual to  produce  according  to  his  ability,  and  to  receive 
from  others  an  exact  equivalent  according  to  his  services ; 
laws  that  will  exclude  all  ideas  of  gain  except  exchange  for 
mutual  services;  institutions  that  will  realize  perfect 
morality  in  contradistinction  to  the  unmorality  of  nature ;  a 
civilization  that  will  realize  the  Golden  Rule.  Society  is 
responsible  for  the  misspent  energy  due  to  avarice,  lust, 
fear,  tyranny,  treason,  partisanship,  superstition  and  igno- 
rance; for  society  is  responsible  for  the  individual's  knowing 
how  to  live.  Society  is  responsible  for  the  gilded  misery  of 
aristocracy,  its  ennui,  its  lack  of  noble  aspiration,  its  gnaw- 
ing fear  of  revolution;  because  society  is  responsible  for  all 
social  control.  Society  is  responsible  for  the  niggardly, 
hard,  cruel,  inhuman  spirit  of  business;  because  society  is 
responsible  for  the  enforcement  of  all  social  laws.  Society 
is  responsible  for  the  intellectual  death,  the  fear,  the  moral 
cowardice,  the  bigotry,  the  lack  of  tolerance,  of  charity,  the 


368        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

lack  of  humanity,  the  lack  of  true  religion,  and  the  dire 
hypocrisy  and  phariseeism  of  Christianity;  because  society  is 
responsible  for  the  social  sense  and  the  religion  of  the  indi- 
vidual. Society  is  responsible  for  the  immorality,  the  lack 
of  intellectuality  and  the  low  grade  of  life  in  civilization 
to-day;  because  society  is  responsible  for  its  laws  and  insti- 
tutions. Society  is  responsible  for  the  right  expenditure  of 
all  energy,  and  the  sooner  it  is  conscious  of  its  responsi- 
bility the  sooner  it  will  bear  it,  and  consciously  remedy  the 
ills  due  to  its  dereliction  of  duty  by  causing  all  energy  to  be 
expended  according  to  public  corporate  knowledge,  the 
social  sense. 

How  many  individuals  in  their  social  natures  to-day  feel 
this  responsibility?  Very  few.  It  is  true  that  many  do  in 
a  vague  way.  They  are  philanthropic,  charitable,  public 
spirited.  The  theological  social  sense  obscures  man's  social 
functions  so  he  does  not  understand  them  at  all.  Some 
express  their  social  responsibility  in  existing  religious  insti- 
tutions. Others  look  for  amelioration  through  politics. 
This  is  the  favorite  remedy  here  in  the  United  States. 
Eeally,  there  is  very  little  of  an  abiding  consciousness  that 
society  itself  is  responsible  for  most  of  the  ills  of  civilization. 
How  quickly  will  a  call  to  arms  be  responded  to  when  made  by 
the  government  at  the  fear  of  an  invasion  of  the  nation's  terri- 
tory !  Simply  because  social  consciousness  is  very  acute  on 
this  point.  Those  nations  in  the  past  that  did  not  develop 
such  a  moral  sense  of  self -protection  became  extinct.  To-day 
it  is  not  foreign  foes  that  society  needs  fear,  but  misdirected 
energy  within  its  own  borders.  It  is  not  sensitiveness  to 
outside  shocks,  but  sensitiveness  to  inside  shocks.  And  the 
nation  to-day  that  does  not  develop  a  moral  and  social  sense 
to  correspond  to  these  inside  shocks  will  become  extinct, 
and  the  nations  that  do  develop  moral  and  social  senses  to 
make  them  aware  of  them  will  survive  and  ultimately  reach 
social  perfection. 


ASPECTS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MORALITY        369 

Social  responsibility  is  dimly  felt  by  all  of  us,  as  is  shown 
in  our  attempts  to  make  and  enforce  good  laws,  to  elevate 
the  general  intelligence  of  our  country,  by  our  taking  a  pride 
in  good  citizenship,  and  in  many  other  ways.  But  man's 
social  nature  does  not  cry  out  against  the  misdirection  of 
social  energy  as  his  individual  nature  does  at  the  misdirec- 
tion of  his  individual  energies.  The  misdirection  of  social 
energy  is  a  vague  feeling,  the  misdirection  of  individual 
energy  is  an  intense  pain. 

The  man  who  would  sacrifice  his  life  on  the  field  of  battle 
to  save  his  country  from  invasion,  prompted  by  the  emotion 
of  religion  (though  not  called  by  that  name),  to-day  would 
unhesitatingly  help  to  enact  laws  that  produce  panics,  pov- 
erty, the  struggle  for  existence,  and  death  to  thousands, 
where  tens  die  on  the  battlefield.  It  is  strange  that  a  man 
could  be  so  heroic  in  one  case  and  so  unheroic  in  the  other. 
It  is  because  men  do  not  understand  what  life  is.  What  the 
common  individual  needs  is  insight  into  social  processes  to 
show  him  that  just  as  glorious  service  can  be  rendered 
humanity  by  peaceful  methods  as  by  war;  that  the  most 
tragic  wrong  is  death  by  inches,  undignified  and  degrading, 
in  sweat-shops,  in  mines  and  on  inhospitable  farms ;  that  he 
who  would  risk  his  life  in  saving  the  life  of  another  in  a 
physical  accident,  or  on  the  field  of  battle  in  defense  of  his 
country,  is  no  greater  hero  than  he  who  sacrifices  his  life  in 
years  of  useful  toil  alleviating  the  hardships  of  humanity 
wherever  they  may  be  found,  by  originating  institutions 
or  by  producing  thoughts  for  others  to  apply.  It  is  the 
hero  of  peace,  of  intelligence,  of  morality  that  the  race  must 
recognize ;  for  it  is  virtue  prompted  by  them  that  will  save 
the  race,  not  the  heroism  of  the  warrior.  We  are  not  savages 
that  we  need  to  fight,  but  civilized  men  who  should  expend 
our  energy  with  perfect  economy.  It  is  the  hero  of  thought, 
of  humanity,  of  moral  sublimity,  of  justice,  of  democracy 
who  will  cause  the  social  organism  to  reach  that  degree  of 


370      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

sensitiveness  necessary  to  the  highest  social  development. 
"With  society  imbued  with  this  kind  of  moral  service,  moral 
heroism,  life  will  not  be  a  trial,  a  hardship,  but  a  joy  and  a 
blessing. 

And  the  institution,  now  in  its  infancy,  which  will  accom- 
plish this  great  desideratum  is  the  school.  "When  it  is 
based  on  a  naturalistic  concept  of  things,  when  its  efforts 
are  crowned  by  the  ecstasy  of  religion,  the  school  will  be  to 
the  humanity  of  the  future  what  the  home  was  to  primitive 
man,  what  the  church  was  to  our  immediate  ancestors.  It  is 
certainly  the  great  social  institution  of  the  future,  for  it  will 
be  intrusted  with  the  development  of  the  moral  and  social 
senses  and  the  individual's  character. 

The  life  of  the  human  race  is  yet  in  the  future.  All  the 
great  literature,  art  and  science  are  yet  to  come.  All  the 
great  achievements  in  government  are  but  adumbrated  in 
the  governments  of  to-day.  The  school  is  hardly  a  prophecy 
of  what  it  will  be  when  we  study  nature,  life,  mind  and 
society,  instead  of  our  ancestors'  guesses  at  them.  Conscious 
social  life  is  just  dawning.  "What  will  it  be  when  man's  social 
nature  is  as  highly  developed  as  his  individual  nature  is 
to-day?  Society  then,  indeed,  will  be  an  organism  in  every 
sense  of  that  great  word.  All  energy  will  ultimately  be 
expended  with  perfect  economy,  and  the  greatest  happiness 
to  the  greatest  number  will  be  realized. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE     FINAL     SYNTHESIS     OF     NATURE,      LIFE,     MIND     AND 

SOCIETY. 


The  laws  of  nature  are  the  invariable  ways  energies  expend 
themselves  in  nature.  While  the  expenditure  of  energy  in 
physical,  inorganic  nature  is  always  invariable,  and  always 
along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance,  yet  it  is  utterly  regard- 
less of  economy  in  the  sense  of  saving.  There  is  no  attempt 
at  adjusting  the  acting  energies  of  nature  so  that  they  will 
not  oppose,  neutralize  and  waste  one  another.  There  is  no 
purpose.  Nothing  happens  to  the  advantage  of  any  other 
thing  due  to  any  effort  of  the  thing  itself.  The  universe  as 
an  organism  is  the  least  developed,  the  simplest  of  any  we 
know.  It  is  self-sufficing,  everlasting  and  infinite.  Our 
solar  system  is  an  individual  organism,  a  unit  in  the  vast 
organism  of  the  universe.  The  human  race  has  not  contem- 
plated its  situation  from  a  naturalistic  point  of  view  suffi- 
ciently to  arrive  at  a  conception  of  it ;  that  will  be  one  of 
the  achievements  of  social  man  in  the  future,  as  the  conquest 
of  the  earth  has  been  the  achievement  of  individual  man  in 
the  past. 

Order  in  the  universe  is  phenomenally  stable.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  our  solar  system  has  existed  one  hundred  million 
years.  The  order  we  see  in  the  depths  of  space  is  remark- 
ably uniform  and  suffers  little  change.  It  is  the  character- 
istic of  physical  nature  to  vary  slowly  and  to  preserve  its 
form  for  ages.  In  this  regard  it  is  opposite  to  organic  and 
social  nature.  Take  our  solar  system  as  an  example  of  a 

371 


372       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

physical  organism.  It  has  existed  for  a  hundred  million  of 
years,  and  will,  no  doubt,  exist  for  a  hundred  million  more. 
What  was  its  beginning,  and  what  will  be  its  end,  is  left  to 
conjecture  and  deduction;  and  the  course  of  its  cycle  or  life 
is  of  an  interminable  length  of  time.  In  comparison  with 
the  organism  of  man,  which  may  last  a  century,  or  a  social 
organism  which  may  last  a  few  thousand  years  in  cycle  or 
life,  no  wonder  the  universe  and  the  solar  system  are  not 
considered  organisms.  But  what  man  and  society  lack  in 
years  of  existence,  they  make  up  in  intensity  of  experience, 
crowding  into  their  brief  cycles  the  infinite  ages  of  physical 
inorganic  nature. 

The  difference  in  the  physical,  the  organic  and  the  social 
worlds  is  a  difference  of  methods  of  expending  energy, 
resulting  in  a  different  system  of  order  and  greater  econ- 
omy in  the  expenditure  of  energy,  with  different  degrees 
of  evolution  or  progress.  The  dissipation  of  energy  in  oppo- 
sition and  neutralization  in  the  physical  world  produced 
chemical  compounds  which  ended  in  the  origination  of 
organic  compounds  so  delicate  that  by  taking  advantage  of 
the  physical  energies  of  nature  they  were  enabled  to  vary  the 
expenditure  of  their  internal  energy,  so  that  it  was  not 
wasted  in  opposition  and  neutralization,  but  resulted  in 
benefits  and  advantages  to  the  adjusting  compounds.  After 
ages  of  development,  through  the  laws  of  natural  selection 
and  the  laws  of  repetition,  this  primordial  organic  compound 
became  man.  Then  followed  a  vast  age  of  evolution  in 
which  the  social  organism  was  developed  from  the  organic 
man. 

The  physical,  the  organic  and  the  social  forms  of  evolution 
differ  in  the  method  of  the  expenditure  of  energy,  in  the 
system  of  order  resulting  and  in  the  degree  of  evolution  mani- 
fested. Physical  nature  is  so  simple  that  its  laws  are  invari- 
able. There  is  but  one  way  to  expend  energy  in  physical 
nature,  one  avenue,  one  stimulus,  and  it  is  invariably  fol- 


THE  FINAL  SYNTHESIS  OF  NATURE        373 

lowed.  This  is  why  we  say  the  laws  of  nature  are  unchange- 
able. There  is  none  of  that  failure  of  adjustment  we  see  in 
organic  and  social  phenomena;  but  the  reason  for  this  is 
that  where  there  is  little  development,  of  necessity  there 
must  be  small  adjustment.  What  adjustment  there  is,  is 
accomplished  by  the  blind  dissipation  of  the  contending 
energies  taking  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  at  infinite 
waste  of  energy.  The  failures  of  physical  nature  consist  of 
this  constant  waste  of  energy,  and  are  always  the  same.  The 
laws  of  physical  nature  are  invariable,  the  laws  of  organic 
nature  are  variable,  while  the  laws  of  society  are  more 
variable.  Judged  from  the  point  of  view  of  economy  in  the 
expenditure  of  energy,  there  is  a  gradual  increase  in  perfec- 
tion, beginning  with  physical  nature,  extending  to  organic 
nature,  and  ending  in  social  nature.  This  is  contrary  to  the 
general  belief.  The  average  person  thinks  nature  is  perfect 
because  its  laws  are  invariable ;  whereas  that  is  the  cause  of 
its  imperfections.  They  think  society  is  imperfect  because 
its  laws  are  variable ;  whereas  that  is  the  cause  of  its  pos- 
sible ultimate  perfection  in  the  expenditure  of  energy. 

The  perfection  of  physical,  organic  and  social  nature 
depends  upon  the  number  of  lines  of  expending  energy, 
resulting  in  the  greater  adjustment  to  the  environment. 
There  can  be  no  failure  where  there  is  but  one  way  to 
expend  an  energy,  as  in  physical  nature,  and  there  can  be  no 
economy.  Opportunity  for  failure  increases  as  the  lines  for 
expending  energy  increase;  hence  the  imperfection  of 
expenditure  of  energy  in  the  organic  and  social  worlds,  in  con- 
trast to  constant  perfection  of  organism,  something  that  is 
accomplished  only  by  millions  of  years  of  adjustment  in  the 
wasteful  expenditure  of  energy  in  physical  nature.  What 
has  been  considered  the  imperfections  of  the  organic  and  the 
social  worlds,  their  ability  to  expend  energy  along  different 
lines,  to  change,  to  fail,  is  the  cause  of  the  perfection  of  the 
organic  over  the  physical,  and  the  social  over  the  organic. 


374      THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF   IIUMAXITY 

Physical  nature  is  imperfect  because  it  has  no  opportunity  of 
failure  or  success,  but  one  invariable  wasteful  way  of 
expending  energy.  The  organic  has  a  less  number  of  oppor- 
tunities for  failure,  hence  is  deemed  more  perfect  than 
society,  and  society  having  the  maximum  number  of  ways  of 
failure  is  deemed  the  least  perfect.  It  is  an  organism's 
opportunity  of  failure  that  ultimately  ends  in  its  success  in 
the  expenditure  of  its  energy  in  perfect  economy.  Perfec- 
tion of  organism  consists  of  perfection  in  expending  energy, 
beginning  in  the  sheer  waste  of  inorganic  nature,  extending 
to  the  relative  waste  of  the  individual,  and  ending  in  the 
possible  perfect  economy  of  society. 

Order  in  the  physical  world  is  perfectly  stable,  progress 
incalculably  slow,  yet  absolutely  sure ;  order  in  the  organic 
world  is  less  stable,  progress  more  rapid,  but  less  certain;  in 
the  social  world  progress  is  very  rapid,  but  order  is  pre- 
carious and  the  life  of  the  organism  is  insecure.  Physical 
nature  invariably  reacts  to  an  external  stimulus ;  for  there 
is  but  one  method  of  reaction.  But  the  organic  and  the 
social  worlds  do  not  have  anything  like  this  invariability  in 
reaction  to  external  energies;  because  they  are  constantly 
developing  new  methods  of  reaction,  expending  their  ener- 
gies with  greater  and  greater  economy,  which  will  ultimately 
end  in  the  perfect  expenditure  of  all  energy  in  society,  secu- 
ring a  perfect  social  organism,  a  moving  equilibrium  which 
will  adjust  internal  energies  to  external  energies  so  that 
there  will  be  perfect  order  and  perfect  progress. 

Physical  inorganic  nature,  organic  life  and  society  are 
Hhree  worlds,  three  diverse  organisms.  Physical  nature 
attained  the  acme  of  physical  development  in  chemical  com- 
pounds; then  began  the  evolution  of  organic  life,  reaching 
its  acme  in  man,  followed  by  the  social  world,  and  destined 
to  reach  its  acme  in  a  social  organism  which  will  comprise  the 
entire  human  race.  Yet  nature  is  one  There  are  no 
breaks,  only  evolution  of  the  organic  out  of  the  physical, 


THE  FINAL  SYNTHESIS  OF  NATURE 


•Ji  O 


and  the  social  out  of  the  organic.  All  energy  expends  itself 
really  by  but  one  law;  that  is,  along  the  line  of  the  least 
resistance.  In  physical  inorganic  nature  the  line  is  deter- 
mined by  the  blind  conflict  of  the  contending  energies,  in 
organic  nature  it  is  determined  by  the  intellect,  in  society  it 
is  determined  by  morality.  All  energy  in  nature  expends 
itself  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance.  Nature  is  one. 

The  animal  organism  does  not  by  any  means  react  to 
external  nature  uniformly,  nor  have  absolute  order  in  its 
organization,  but  certainly  its  laws,  ways  of  expending 
energy,  are  more  self -executing  than  those  of  the  social 
organism.  The  laws  of  the  individual  are  still  forming; 
that  is,  the  individual  is  still  inventing  ways  of  expending 
his  internal  energies,  is  becoming  better  and  better  adjusted 
to  the  environment,  so  that  his  energies  in  their  reactions 
expend  themselves  with  greater  and  greater  economy.  But 
order  in  the  organic  world  is  a  moving  equilibrium  instead 
of  a  stationary  compound,  as  in  physical  nature.  The  cycle 
of  organic  life  is  an  evolution  that  resists  disorganization  by 
a  constant  adjustment  to  the  environment  instead  of  being 
unaffected  by  external  attack,  as  are  inorganic  compounds. 
Organic  life  secured  order  by  the  adjustment  of  internal 
energies  to  external  energies,  not  by  resisting  them,  as  do 
chemical  compounds. 

A  failure  of  adjustment  in  organic  nature  is  always  pun- 
ished, the  adjusting  organism  meeting  with  incompleteness 
of  life,  if  not  death.  "When  the  sense  of  sensibility  was  first 
developed,  no  doubt  many  were  the  compounds  that  only 
partially  reacted  according  to  it  which  still  existed,  and  the 
environment  was  seemingly  not  only  incompetent  to  vary  it 
or  develop  it,  but  to  destroy  it.  However,  in  the  course  of 
time,  all  such  organisms  became  extinct,  for  we  see  none  of 
them  upon  the  earth  to-day.  The  same  is  true  in  regard  to 
the  development  of  the  laws  of  the  intellect  to-day.  Many 
is  the  mind  that  fails  to  think,  that  fails  to  react  to  external 


376       THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF    HUMANITY 

stimulus,  that  fails  to  follow  the  laws  of  expending  mental 
energy,  which  still  exists;  but  gradually  those  individuals 
who  react  most  readily  to  the  environment,  who  follow  the 
laws  of  thought,  are  exterminating  and  supplanting  the 
individuals  who  totally  or  partially  disregard  them,  and  who 
are  insensible  to  the  environment.  Those  individuals  who 
follow  the  laws  of  thought  are  the  favored  ones  in  the  great 
struggle  for  existence  and  in  the  diplomacy  for  the  per- 
petuation of  the  species  which  Darwin  calls  sexual  selec- 
tion. 

In  the  social  organism  the  possibilities  of  adjustment  to 
the  environment  are  at  their  maximum,  and  the  resulting 
order  secures  by  intelligent  adjustment  the  maximum  per- 
mancy  of  form.  Society  will  be  able  to  exist  always  by  con- 
stantly changing,  evolving,  as  the  environment  changes,  go- 
ing to  the  opposite  of  unchanging  chemical  compounds  and 
improving  upon  the  variability  of  organic  compounds  in 
reaching  permanency  of  form  by  yielding  to  erery  influence 
of  the  environment  and  adjusting  itself  to  it.  Those  tribes 
and  nations  who  live  according  to  the  moral  and  social  senses, 
and  thus  secure  perfect  adaptation  to  the  environment,  are 
gradually  supplanting  those  that  do  not  in  the  struggle  for 
existence.  The  struggle  for  existence  in  the  social  world  is 
between  tribe  and  tribe,  nation  and  nation,  and  not  between 
individual  and  individual.  A  high  form  of  moral  and 
social  sense,  a  religion  based  on  morality,  is  always  preferred 
in  the  straggle  for  existence  among  tribe  and  tribe  and  nation 
and  nation.  That  nation  having  the  superior  moral  and 
social  sense,  the  superior  instinct  of  religion,  is  the  one  which 
effects  the  best  social  organization,  which  adjusts  society  to 
the  environment,  and  which  enables  it  to  act  as  a  unit,  and 
has  always  survived  in  the  struggle  for  existence  between 
tribe  and  tribe,  nation  and  nation. 

If  the  individual  is  hurt  by  his  advanced  religion,  it  is 
always  to  the  betterment  of  his  tribe,  his  nation;  for  the 


THE  FINAL  SYNTHESIS  OF  NATURE        377 

central  function  of  the  instinct  of  religion  is  sacrifice,  the 
sacrifice  of  the  individual  to  humanity.  And  all  individuals 
owe  this  to  humanity,  for  all  they  are  or  hope  to  be  is  due  to 
humanity.  It  creates  for  them  their  values,  their  ambi- 
tions, their  entire  life.  Without  humanity  there  is  no  life 
for  the  individual,  hence  his  religious  instinct  prompts 
martyrdom  when  it  is  necessary  for  religious  progress. 
This  is  the  law  of  religion.  The  truly  religious  man  does 
not  stop  to  weigh  consequences,  but  plunges  into  the  flames 
of  persecution  as  blindly  as  the  instinct-prompted  moth  flies 
into  the  flames  of  fire.  No  questions  are  asked.  The 
stimulus  is  given  in  the  environment  and  the  act  follows ; 
that  is  all.  And  the  tribe  or  nation  which  has  had  the  most 
martyrs,  the  most  heroes,  is  the  one  which  has  survived  in  the 
struggle  for  existence  between  tribe  and  tribe,  nation  and 
nation ;  for  it  is  through  religion  that  the  social  organism  is 
organized  and  performs  its  functions  in  nature. 

II 

The  social  organism  is  constructed  out  of  individuals  and 
possesses  laws  independent  of  the  individuals,  as  the  indi- 
vidual is  an  organism  constructed  out  of  physical  inorganic 
nature  and  possesses  laws  independent  of  inorganic  nature. 
Both  organisms  are  subject  to  the  laws  of  inorganic  nature,  but 
the  laws  peculiar  to  each  have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with 
inorganic  nature.  If  the  laws  peculiar  to  the  individual  and 
the  laws  peculiar  to  society  are  not  enforced  by  the  individual 
and  society,  they  will  not  be  and  cannot  be  enforced  by  inor- 
ganic nature.  If  the  energies  of  the  individual  and  the4 
energies  of  society  do  not  expend  themselves  in  the  most 
economic  ways  possible,  it  is  the  fault  of  the  individual  and  of 
society,  and  not  of  inorganic  nature;  for  in  our  universe  the 
source  of  control  and  direction  comes  from  the  most  complex 
organisms,  those  farthest  removed  from  primordial  matter  and 
energy,  and  not  the  least  complex  organisms,  physical  nature, 


378      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

the  energies  constituting  matter  itself.  As  the  individual 
through  his  intellect  can  modify  his  own  character  so  that 
all  the  energies  of  his  nature  will  expend  themselves  to  his 
own  advantage ;  so  can  the  social  organism  modify  the  struc- 
ture of  society  through  public  corporate  knowledge  so  that 
the  energies  of  society  will  expend  themselves  to  its  own 
advantage.  But  physical  nature  cannot  guide  and  control 
its  own  energies,  nor  the  energies  of  the  individual  nor  the 
energies  of  society.  The  individual  can  guide  and  control 
the  energies  of  nature  and  his  own  energies,  but  cannot  guide 
and  control  the  energies  of  society.  But  society  can  guide 
and  control  the  energies  of  nature,  the  energies  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  its  own  energies  as  an  organism.  It  is  the 
supreme  control  in  the  expenditure  of  energy  here  upon 
earth. 

The  fundamental  contention  of  individualism  is  that  the 
individual  is  tha  supreme  authority  in  the  guidance  and  con- 
trol of  energy  here  on  earth.  Simply  because  the  individual 
is  able  to  initiate  social  functions — for  example,  the  origina- 
tion of  property  through  self-interest — is  no  reason  that  he 
can  perform  all  social  functions  or  carry  any  of  them  to  per- 
fection. One  might  as  well  contend  that  as  physical  nature 
originated  life  and  mind,  therefore  it  should  control  it. 
Property  is  originated  by  individualism  at  enormous  waste, 
and  is  adopted  only  because  wealth  creates  society  and  must 
be  produced  by  the  individual  before  society  can  exist;  then 
the  wealth-produced  society  becomes  the  greatest  instrument 
in  the  production  of  wealth  through  cooperation  that  is  pos- 
sible in  the  nature  of  things.  The  social  production  of 
property  through  cooperation  will  be  infinitely  more  eco- 
nomic in  the  sense  of  saving  than  individual  production,  and 
will  inevitably  be  adopted  by  the  whole  race  for  that  reason. 
Matter  and  energy  being  blind  do  everything  backwards,  use 
unintelligent  nature  to  create  the  intellect,  and  the  unsocial 
individual  to  create  the  social  organism.  Individualism 


THE  FINAL  SYNTHESIS  OF  NATURE        379 

makes  socialism  possible,  each  is  the  best  in  its  time  and 
place;  but  the  greatest  individual  will  be  the  product  of  the 
highest  social  organism,  and  the  highest  social  organism  will 
be  a  result  of  the  most  perfect  individual. 

If  social  laws,  the  expenditure  of  human  energy  accord- 
ing to  the  moral  sense,  as  well  as  public  corporate 
knowledge,  the  social  sense,  are  not  enforced  by  society,  are 
not  made  to  flow  into  the  most  economic  channels  from  the 
point  of  view  of  society,  they  are  not  enforced  at  all.  A 
person  might  as  well  expect,  if  he  were  hungry  and  con- 
cluded not  to  eat,  that  physical  nature  would  feed  him, 
whether  or  no,  by  making  her  fruits,  grains  and  vegetables 
supply  his  wants  by  forcing  themselves  into  his  mouth,  as  to 
expect  physical  nature,  or  the  God  of  physical  nature,  to 
enforce  the  laws  of  the  individual,  or  the  laws  of  society,  by 
inflicting  punishment  for  their  infringement,  or  by  bestow- 
ing reward  for  their  enforcement.  Such  a  theory  of  nature, 
the  individual  and  society  is  not  based  upon  the  facts,  and 
is  purely  anthropomorphic. 

Society  in  order  to  enforce  its  laws  originates  within  the 
individual  the  moral  and  social  senses.  The  moral  sense, 
consisting  of  conscience  and  duty,  is  produced  by  punish- 
ment and  reward,  and  is  an  ever  present  monitor  standing 
guard  over  the  conduct  of  the  individual,  a  God  within  us, 
as  Shakespeare  calls  it.  To  primitive  man  conscience  is  the 
voice  of  God ;  and  most  people  to-day  believe  that  conscience 
is  placed  within  us  by  God,  despite  the  fact  that  they  know 
it  is  purely  a  matter  of  education  and  discipline.  Con- 
science is  developed  in  us  by  the  society  in  which  we  live, 
and  consequently  is  slightly  different  the  world  over,  depend- 
ing upon  a  difference  in  tribes  and  nations.  The  social 
sense  is  originated  in  us  by  society  in  countless  ways,  the 
chief  being  education,  beginning  at  the  cradle  and  extending 
to  the  grave.  Thus  to  identify  a  function  of  society  with 
primordial  nature,  or  to  think  that  nature  has  anything  to 


380       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

do  with  the  control  of  society  is  one  of  the  fundamental 
errors  of  our  theological  social  sense.  Because  conscience 
and  duty  are  unconsciously  produced  by  society,  man 
jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  they  were  produced  by  God, 
hence  that  the  God  of  the  universe  was  interested  in  him 
and  controlled  him  and  society.  There  is  no  Power  back  of 
the  universe.  We  see  all  there  is. 

The  individual  is  responsible  only  to  society,  because  he 
is  a  part  of  society,  and  society  is  responsible  only  to  the 
individual  because  it  is  the  whole  of  which  he  is  a  part,  and 
the  sovereignty  rests  in  the  parts  instead  of  the  whole. 
Society  alone  controls  society,  as  the  animal  organism  alone 
controls  its  functions  in  its  individual  capacity.  Physical 
nature  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  control  of  man  or  of 
society.  Control  comes  from  society  to  the  individual,  and 
from  the  individual  to  physical  nature,  and  not  vice  versa; 
and  every  vestige  of  fact  in  the  environment  which  gives 
origin  to  the  hypothesis  of  a  God  of  nature  controlling  the 
individual  and  society,  and  thus  reversing  the  real  order  of 
things,  is  due  to  the  effect  of  society  upon  the  individual,  pro- 
ducing his  moral  and  social  senses.  If  nature  could  control 
the  individual,  it  would  be  to  his  destruction,  for  the  natural 
expenditure  of  energy  is  more  blind  than  the  expenditure  of 
energy  by  the  intellect  of  the  individual.  All  nations  that 
have  permitted  nature  to  control  them  through  fear  and  super- 
stition have  become  extinct  or  never  developed  above  the 
lowest  savages.  Control  of  the  organic  world  by  the  physical 
is  always  detrimental  and  often  fatal.  It  reverses  the  process 
of  evolution.  If  the  Power  back  of  things  is  God,  why  does 
not  energy  in  physical  nature  expend  itself  in  any  other  way 
than  that  of  dire  waste,  and  take  millions  of  years  to  complete 
a  cycle  which,  with  intelligence,  could  be  completed  in  a  life- 
time? It  is  all  a  misunderstanding  of  what  nature,  life,  mind 
and  society  are.  There  is  no  God  of  nature.  Nature  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  control  of  man  or  society;  but  man 


THE  FINAL  SYNTHESIS  OF  NATURE        381 

and  society  are  the  God  of  nature,  control  it  and  use  it, 
because  it  cannot  control  and  use  itself. 

Society  can  control  the  individual,  and  the  individual  can 
control  nature,  but  whenever  the  individual  controls  society, 
it  is  to  its  detriment,  and  if  persisted  in,  by  making  class-rule 
caste-rule,  results  in  its  destruction  and  extinction.  The 
same  havoc  occurs  which  happens  when  some  nation  through 
superstition  allows  physical  nature  to  direct  its  energies. 
The  lower  cannot  direct  the  higher ;  the  individual  cannot 
control  society  except  to  its  detriment  and  final  destruction. 
Nature  is  an  organism  which  results  from  the  blind  adjust- 
ment of  the  elements  and  energies  of  the  universe ;  but  the 
individual  and  society  use  and  direct  the  blind  external 
energies  to  effect  their  adjustment,  their  development  and 
to  perpetuate  their  existence.  Just  because  man  stands  out- 
side things  and  controls  them,  and  society,  without  man  and 
within  him,  controls  man — and  man  is  thus  dependent  upon 
society ;  for  this  reason  man  thinks  that  some  God  stands 
outside  nature  and  controls  it.  Such  a  belief  is  anthropo- 
morphism, and,  when  rightly  seen,  contradicts  every  fact  of 
nature,  the  individual  and  society.  It  is  the  first  suggestion 
of  primitive  man's  imagination,  and  will  be  the  last  belief  of 
our  savage  ancestors  to  be  gotten  rid  of  by  conscious  society. 

Thus,  there  are  three  ways  of  expending  energy  in  the 
universe,  the  inorganic,  the  organic  and  the  social ;  and  the 
way  of  the  organic  is  an  improvement  upon  the  inorganic, 
and  the  way  of  society  is  an  improvement  upon  the  organic, 
and  each  has  been  arrived  at  later  in  time.  First,  the  laws 
of  physical  nature,  being  the  expenditure  of  energy  along 
invariable  lines  regardless  of  all  economy;  secondly,  the  laws 
of  mind,  being  the  expenditure  of  energy  along  variable 
lines  with  greater  and  greater  economy,  which  subordinates 
the  energy  of  nature  to  the  individual's  advantage;  and 
thirdly,  the  laws  of  society,  being  the  expenditure  of  energy 
along  still  more  variable  lines,  resulting  in  the  greatest  pos- 


382      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

sible  economy,  which  subordinates  the  energies  of  nature 
and  the  energies  of  the  individual  to  the  advantage  of  society 
as  a  whole.  Each  of  these  laws  ends  in  a  system  of  order, 
but  the  system  of  the  individual  is  higher  than  that  of 
nature,  and  the  system  of  society  is  a  higher  form  of  order 
than  that  of  the  individual ;  and  the  expenditure  of  energy 
by  the  individual  ends  in  the  expenditure  of  energy  in  a 
more  economical  way  than  that  of  nature,  and  society 
expends  energy  more  economically  than  the  individual  until 
through  the  perfection  of  the  moral  and  social  senses  energy 
is  expended  with  perfect  economy;  that  is,  all  energy  is 
turned  to  one  purpose,  the  betterment  of  the  entire  human 
race. 

Our  theological  social  sense  reverses  the  procedure  here 
indicated.  It  teaches  that  God,  which,  when  traced  to  His 
most  popular  form,  is  the  imaginary  Power  back  of  things, 
enforces  all  laws,  inflicts  all  punishment  for  disobedience, 
and  bestows  all  rewards  for  merit,  is  the  executive  of  the 
universe.  The  dire  waste  of  energy  in  physical  nature  is 
overlooked,  the  mistakes  and  imperfections  of  the  individual 
laid  to  his  own  door,  through  the  freedom  of  the  will,  and 
the  manifest  injustice  in  society,  its  almost  total  misgov- 
ernment,  is  accounted  for  on  the  ground  that  God  does 
not  judge  in  this  life,  but  in  another  after  death.  This  great 
device  of  a  future  judgment  has  kept  the  individual  for 
thousands  of  years  from  seeing  through  the  theological  social 
sense  at  a  moment's  glance.  The  theological  social  sense 
is  exactly  opposite  to  the  truth.  Nature  runs  nature,  and 
in  doing  so  produces  the  individual;  then  the  individual 
runs  nature  and  himself,  and  in  doing  so  produces  society; 
then  society  runs  itself,  the  individual  and  nature.  The 
only  control  that  is  God-like  is  from  society,  for  it  is  to 
society  that  the  individual  is  responsible  for  all  he  is  and 
does.  If  society  does  not  enforce  its  laws,  they  are  unen- 
forced,  and  if  the  individual  is  unpunished  for  wrongs  to 


THE  FINAL  SYNTHESIS  OF  NATURE       383 

society  and  unrewarded  for  merits,  he  receives  no  punish- 
ment and  no  reward. 

But  what  is  confusing  about  social  control  is  that  the 
court  of  punishment  and  reward  of  the  social  organism  is 
not  placed  in  another  life  beyond  the  grave,  but  within  the 
individual's  own  self,  mind,  heart,  in  the  form  of  conscience 
and  duty,  sympathy  and  self-approval.  This  is  the  God- 
like thing  about  society  and  excuses  primitive  man  for  orig- 
inating the  allegory  of  God  to  explain  it,  but  does  not  excuse 
modern  scientists  for  continuing  to  do  so  to-day.  If  society 
has  placed  a  faculty  within  the  individual  which  bestows 
reward  and  inflicts  punishment  called  conscience  and  duty, 
the  moral  sense,  the  control  none  the  less  comes  from 
society ;  for  this  is  the  only  way  society  can  enforce  its  con- 
trol, and  it  acts  really  like  a  God,  and  to  the  primitive  mind 
conscience  has  always  been  considered  a  God,  or  the  voice  of 
a  God,  and  now  for  the  first  time  in  history  this  wonderful 
phenomenon  has  received  an  explicit  explanation  in  natural- 
istic terms.  But  there  is  nothing  more  wonderful  in  society's 
control  of  the  individual  through  the  moral  and  social  senses 
than  the  individual's  control  of  nature  through  mind;  for 
they  are  but  different  aspects  of  the  same  principle  of  con- 
trol, only  the  energies  which  produce  the  mind  are  the  phys- 
ical energies  of  nature,  while  the  energies  which  produce  the 
moral  and  social  senses  are  the  psychical  energies  of  society. 
One  is  no  more  God-like  than  the  other;  in  fact,  the  God 
of  the  universe  is  quite  as  often  conceived  to  be  Mind  as 
Goodness  and  Virtue. 

Ill 

The  manifest  lack  of  justice  in  the  way  of  punishment  of 
the  individual  and  classes  for  the  violation  of  social  laws  by 
the  God  of  physical  nature,  conceding  the  theological  sense 
to  be  true,  causes  the  adoption  of  a  belief  in  retribution  in 
another  world,  in  which  the  abused,  the  oppressed  and  the 


384      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMAXITY 

wronged  of  this  world  will  receive  justice;  but  a  system  of 
jurisprudence  that  venues  all  cases  to  an  unknown  jurisdic- 
tion, is  to  a  logical  mind,  fundamentally  defective.  Noth- 
ing can  be  more  illogical,  and  man  in  his  own  systems  of 
jurisprudence  does  not  follow  it  at  all,  but  the  opposite  prac- 
tice, that  of  speedy  retribution.  The  theological  social  sense 
is  an  excuse  that  man  gives  for  the  imperfection  of  things. 
If  it  alone  controlled  man,  and  our  naturalistic  social  sense 
did  not  piece  it  out,  by  developing  in  each  of  us  an  instinc- 
tive, naturalistic  social  sense,  society  could  not  exist  at  all. 
The  race  never  came  nearer  to  extinction  than  when  it 
believed  implicitly  in  the  theological  social  sense  during  the 
Dark  Ages,  and  never  made  more  progress  than  since  it  has 
ceased  to  believe  in  it,  siuce  the  Reformation.  The  theolog- 
ical social  sense  is  the  chief  cause  of  the  imperfection  of  civili- 
zation to-day.  While  the  good  persons  of  earth  are  trusting 
implicitly  in  the  God  of  nature  to  ameliorate  the  tragedies  of 
poverty,  the  struggle  for  existence  and  war,  the  bad  trust  in 
themselves  to  outwit  the  ministers  of  justice  in  this  life,  the 
wronged  individual  and  society,  and  readily  join  in  an  appeal 
of  all  cases  to  a  higher  court  in  another  life,  and  thus  delay 
judgment  till  death  ends  all.  The  bad  people  of  earth  use 
this  theological  social  sense  as  the  chief  instrument  of 
oppression  of  the  good.  The  oppressors,  the  exploiters,  the 
Judases  to  society,  use  the  garb  of  hypocrisy,  respectability, 
nobility  and  orthodoxy  in  which  to  hide  their  injustice,  their 
inhumanity,  their  treachery,  their  method  of  anarchistic 
living. 

The  tragedy  of  poverty,  the  struggle  for  existence,  war, 
are  caused  by  our  imperfect  social  sense.  The  vices  of  lust, 
hate,  avarice,  dishonesty,  jealousy,  are  due  to  our  imperfect 
moral  sense.  The  ills  of  civilization  to-day  are  purely  and 
solely  due  to  an  imperfect  social  organism,  not  to  some 
God's  plan  of  salvation,  or  to  some  weak  God  who  could  not 
do  any  better.  We  are  in  the  midst  of  a  universal  process 


THE  FINAL  SYNTHESIS  OF  NATURE        385 

which  started  with  the  least  possible  organization  of  matter, 
the  maximum  waste  of  energy  (physical  nature),  and  will 
ultimately  reach  perfect  organization  in  the  social  organiza- 
tion and  the  greatest  economy  of  energy.  With  the  doc- 
trine of  evolution  believed  in  by  all,  it  is  remarkable  that 
the  imperfections  of  civilization  are  not  seen  to  be  due  to  the 
lack  of  development  in  society,  to  be  followed  by  speedy 
efforts  of  all  of  us  at  social  perfection.  The  social  organism 
is  inevitably  destined  to  reach  perfect  expenditure  of  energy 
as  soon  as  we  get  rid  of  our  false,  misleading  and  thought- 
stopping  theological  social  sense. 

The  only  hope  of  the  race  is  in  scientific  moral  and 
social  senses.  Then  the  individual  cannot  escape  the  conse- 
quences of  his  misconduct;  for  the  source  of  his  punishment 
will  be  not  only  without  himself,  but  also  within  himself. 
Society  can  no  longer  trust  to  its  traditional  God  for  salva- 
tion. The  only  possible  way  to  make  the  God-theory  of 
things  effective  is  to  have  every  one  believe  it ;  then  it  will 
act  as  a  moral  sense,  and  inflict  punishment  and  bestow 
reward  by  threats  and  promises  in  another  world ;  but  to-day 
the  greatest  sinners  against  humanity,  such  as  kings,  nobili- 
ties, aristocracies,  the  oppressors  and  exploiters  of  humanity 
in  all  forms,  do  not  believe  in  God,  but  instead,  they  use 
the  belief  to  further  their  nefarious  ends.  Society  must 
develop  its  moral  and  social  senses  scientifically  by  a 
thorough  system  of  education,  by  just  punishment  and  by 
certain  reward.  Society  can  no  longer  trust  to  God  and  the 
church,  for  instead  of  enforcing  morality  they  uphold  exist- 
ing evils.  Nothing  is  truer  than  the  socialistic  thesis  that 
the  function  of  the  state  and  church  to-day  is  to  uphold 
existing  economic  conditions.  Eeforms  and  revolutions  do 
not  come  from  above,  kings,  aristocracies,  nobles,  capital- 
ists, but  from  below,  the  people.  The  growth  of  society  does 
not  come  from  above,  but  from  below.  The  only  healthful 
stratum  of  society  is  the  lower.  It  is  the  business  of  the 


38G      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

ruling  classes  to  maintain  their  position,  hence  the  con- 
servative portion  of  humanity  is  always  in  power.* 

The  existing  Christianity  with  its  present  beliefs  is  power- 
less to  ameliorate  the  ills  of  society,  or  enforce  social  laws  for 
'the  benefit  of  all,  because  the  greatest  offenders  against 
society  are  already  Christians,  f 

There  are  two  kinds  of  infidels,  the  theologic  and  the 
moral.  The  theologic  infidels,  Voltaire,  Ingersoll,  Paine, 
disbelieve  in  all  theology;  the  moral  infidels,  kings,  oppres- 
sors, traitors  to  the  race,  men  who  have  no  fidelity  to  the 
race,  men  who  use  Christianity  to  further  their  selfish 
plans,  disbelieve  in  all  pure  morality.  They  are  wolves  in 
sheep's  clothing.  They  are  Pharisees.  They  are  indi- 
vidualists. They  pervert  religion,  use  it  to  take  advantage 

*" We  have,  consequently  at  the  present  day  in  most  of  our  advanced  soci- 
eties the  remarkable  phenomenon  of  the  intellectual  and  educated  classes,  at 
first,  invariably  condemning  and  resisting  the  successive  steps  in  our  social 
development,  uttering  the  most  gloomy  warnings  and  forebodings  as  these 
steps  have  been  taken— and  then  tardily  justifying  them  when  they  have 
become  matters  of  history.  *  *  *  In  England  during  the  nineteenth  century 
the  educated  classes,  in  almost  all  of  the  great  political  changes  that  have  been 
effected,  have  taken  the  side  of  the  party  afterwards  admitted  to  have  been  in 
the  wrong.  *  *  *  This  is  to  be  noticed  alike  of  measures  which  have  ex- 
tended education,  which  have  emancipated  trade,  which  have  extended  the 
franchise.  The  educated  classes  have  even,  it  must  be  confessed,  opposed 
measures  which  have  tended  to  secure  religious  freedom  and  to  abolish  slavery. 
The  motive  force  behind  the  long  list  of  progressive  measures  carried  during 
this  period  has  in  scarcely  any  appreciable  measure  conie  from  the  educated 
classes;  it  has  come  almost  exclusively  from  the  middle  and  lower  classes,  who 
have  in  turn  acted,  not  under  the  stimulus  of  intellectual  motives,  but  under 
the  influence  of  altruistic  feelings."— Sod al  Evolution,  by  BENJ.  KIDD,  pp.  235-6. 

f'Between  that  period  during  which  a  nation  is  governed  by  its  imagination 
and  that  in  which  it  submits  to  its  reason,  there  is  a  melancholy  interval. 
The  constitution  of  man  is  such  that,  for  a  long  time  after  he  has  discovered 
the  incorrectness  of  the  ideas  prevailing  around  him,  he  shrinks  from  openly 
emancipating  himself  from  their  dominion,  and,  constrained  by  the  force  of 
circumstances,  he  becomes  a  hypocrite,  publicly  applauding  what  his  private 
judgment  condemns.  Where  a  nation  is  making  this  passage,  so  universal 
do  these  practices  become  that  it  may  be  truly  said  hypocrisy  is  organized. 
*  *  *  The  great  men  (Greeks)  were  only  too  prone  to  regard  their  fellow- 
citizens  as  rabble,  mere  things  to  be  played  ofl  against  one  another,  and  con- 
sidered that  the  objects  of  life  were  dominion  and  lust;  that  love,  self-sacrifice 
and  devotion  are  fictions;  that  oaths  are  only  good  for  deceptions.1'—  The 
Intellectual  Development  of  Europe,  by  JOHN  W.  DHAPEH.  Vol.  I,  p.  54. 


THE  FINAL  SYNTHESIS  OF  NATURE       387 

of  their  brothers  by  teaching  that  the  imaginary  world  man 
inherited  from  his  savage  ancestors,  the  immortal  life  beyond 
the  grave,  is  the  important  life,  and  that  the  real  life  of 
to-day  is  but  a  preparation  for  this  imaginary  life  yet  to 
come.  They  teach  that  it  is  blasphemy  and  sacrilege  to 
speak  out  against  this  imaginary  life ;  and  thus  they  use  this 
imaginary  world  to  control  the  real  world  about  us  to  their 
own  advantage.  They  use  the  social  organization  for  their 
individual  benefit.  They  do  this  unconsciously  quite  as 
often  as  consciously.  To  speak  aught  against  God  and 
immortality  shocks  these  moral  infidels,  but  to  say  that 
society  is  the  primal  source  of  all  of  our  religious  concepts, 
that  to  it  we  owe  all  of  our  noble  sentiments,  that  the  true 
life  is  to  render  service  for  service  by  universal  cooperation, 
meets  with  cries  of  sacrilege,  blasphemy.  It  has  ever  been 
thus.  But  just  as  higher  concepts  in  the  past  took  the  place 
of  the  lower  ones,  so  will  the  scientific  social  sense  to-day 
supplant  this  theological  social  sense,  no  matter  how  sup- 
ported by  church  and  state.  Man  is  destined  to  live  a  con- 
scious existence,  to  know  and  feel  just  what  life  is,  and  the 
sooner  he  consents  to  accept  this  philosophy,  the  better  it 
will  be  for  the  race.  Society  is  destined  to  be  an  organism 
with  as  full  and  as  complete  control  of  itself  as  the  animal 
organism  is  to-day  in  its  individual  functions.  It  is  only  a 
question  of  time  and  evolution. 

On  account  of  this  moral  infidelity  civilization  is  one  vast 
scramble  for  wealth,  position,  power.  To  the  victor  belongs 
the  spoils;  all  is  fair  in  love,  war  and  business;  my  country, 
right  or  wrong;  competition  is  the  life  of  trade;  honesty  is 
the  best  policy;  do  others  or  they  will  do  you;  let  well 
enough  alone,  and  countless  other  maxims  are  believed  in 
and  acted  upon,  and  as  a  result  civilization  is  one  vast 
panic,  poverty,  in  fact  or  fear,  the  fate  of  all,  the  struggle 
for  existence,  conflict,  war,  insecurity  and  uncertainty  the 
condition  of  life  the  world  over.  This  state  of  affairs  is 


388       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

upheld  by  our  moral  infidels,  our  theological  social-sense 
hypocrites,  by  preaching  the  doctrine  of  the  fall  of  man, 
instead  of  his  evolution;  total  depravity,  instead  of  the 
intellect  taking  advantage  of  nature,  and  of  the  individual 
before  the  moral  and  social  senses  are  developed;  the  atone- 
ment, instead  of  the  doctrine  of  martyrdom  and  sacrifice  of 
the  individual  to  perfect  the  social  organism,  compensated 
for  by  religion ;  salvation  by  faith,  instead  of  salvation  by 
morality ;  reward  in  another  world,  instead  of  reward  in  this 
one,  where  will  be  realized  our  hopes  and  aspirations,  that 
should  and  can  be  realized  in  the  perfection  of  the  social 
organism  here  on  earth  simply  by  continuing  the  process 
now  going  on. 

The  result  is  that  society  is  not  able  to  control  the 
energies  of  the  individual  to  the  general  welfare  of  the  race 
to-day,  that  many  really  good  persons  are  forced  to  be  bad  by 
being  compelled  to  live  in  a  system  of  doing  things  con- 
trolled by  bad  persons.  As  physical  nature  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  control  of  society,  nor  the  God  of  physical  nature 
or  any  other  God,  the  only  social  control  we  have  is  the 
unconscious  workings  of  the  moral  and  social  senses,  and  the 
individualistic  control  assumed  by  interested  persons,  cor- 
porations and  classes,  who  use  society  as  a  tool  for  their  own 
private  benefit.  When  the  social  organism  has  outgrown  the 
period  of  individual  initiative,  as  it  has  to-day,  individual, 
corporate  or  class  control  acts  upon  the  social  organism  as  a 
disease  upon  the  animal  organism ;  and  as  the  disease  in  one 
case,  if  not  remedied,  causes  degeneration,  decay  and  death, 
so  will  it  in  the  other. 

The  God  of  nature  is  not  the  God  of  society.  There  is  no 
God  that  interferes  with  society.  It  runs  its  course  for  weal 
or  woe  unhindered,  unhelped.  To  think  that  nature  is  not 
spontaneous  and  self-sufficing  in  every  kind  of  organism  shows 
that  we  do  not  understand  nature  any  better  than  the  inex- 
perienced savage.  The  God  of  nature  is  nature  itself.  The 


THE  FINAL  SYNTHESIS  OF  NATURE       389 

God  of  society  is  society  itself.  It  is  to  society  that  the  indi- 
vidual owes  his  moral  and  social  senses;  it  is  to  society  that 
the  individual  is  responsible ;  and  let  it  be  ever  so  repulsive 
to  our  fanatical  God-worshipers,  yet  society  is  the  only  object 
in  all  nature  that  can  excite  in  the  individual  the  desire  of 
sacrifice,  the  love  of  lofty,  noble  work — the  real  emotion  of 
religion.  -While  true  Christianity  pretends  to  work  for  the 
glory  of  God,  it  really  works  for  the  uplifting  of  man.  But 
think  of  the  gain  if  this  work  could  only  be  made  con- 
scious ! 

There  is  nothing  that  cheats  the  race  of  the  services  of  its 
noblest  individuals  so  much  as  the  worship  of  gods.  Suppose 
there  was  an  omnipotent,  omniscient,  omnipresent  God,  could 
He  be  so  pusillanimous,  so  impotent  as  to  want  human  beings 
to  worship  Him?  What  good  could  it  do?  But  service  to  the 
race  is  of  incalculable  benefit.  The  only  possible  good  that 
has  ever  resulted  from  worship  of  God  is  that  by  it  the  prim- 
itive tribe  was .  bound  together,  and  all  of  our  forms  of  wor- 
ship are  but  relics  of  primitive  savagery.  If  the  God-idea  is 
interpreted  as  an  allegory,  then  the  truth  back  of  it  is  man's 
service  and  responsibility  to  the  race,  and  religious  worship 
should  be  supplanted  by  noble  work  for  the  uplifting  of  the 
race.  Instead  of  being  guided  by  faith,  the  individual 
should  be  guided  by  institutions  based  on  public  corporate 
knowledge.  We  have  yet  to  see  what  will  be  the  effect 
upon  the  social  organism  when  it  finds  out  how  it  has  been 
deceived.  The  change,  however,  will  be  effected  so  gradu- 
ally by  growth,  agitation,  education,  that  the  race  will 
awake  to  consciousness  as  man  has  awakened  without  noting 
the  transition  specifically.  As  the  individual  has  outgrown 
kings,  finding  that  he  can  best  govern  himself;  so  will 
society  outgrow  gods,  finding  that  it  can  best  govern  itself. 

With  the  truly  moral  people  of  the  race  wasting  their 
energies  in  futile  worship  of  an  imaginary  God,  no  wonder 
the  laws  of  society  go  unexecuted.  The  processes  of  pro- 


390      THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF   HUMANITY 

duction,  distribution  and  consumption  are  dominated  by 
men  who  care  nothing  for  God,  because  they  do  not  believe 
there  is  one;  who  care  nothing  for  society,  because  their 
moral  sense  has  not  been  developed  by  society.  They  are 
strong  individuals,  imbued  with  the  praiseworthy  instinct  of 
accumulating  property,  and  are  sustained  by  a  primitive 
form  of  religion  which  rewards  one  for  every  useful  occupa- 
tion. What  such  men  need  is  to  have  created  in  them  moral 
and  social  senses  which  will  not  permit  them  to  experience 
religious  emotion  short  of  the  highest  and  most  complete 
social  utility.  Not  only  make  them  produce  as  they  do,  but 
make  them  distribute  to  all,  so  that  all  can  consume;  make 
them  perform  social  functions  consciously,  instead  of  uncon- 
sciously, as  to-day.  And  such  men  are  ready  for  the  educa- 
tion, for  nine  out  of  ten  of  them  have  rejected  our  theological 
social  sense  and  are  living  as  isolated  individuals,  per- 
forming social  functions  instinctively  and  not  in  accord  with 
scientific  moral  and  social  senses.  It  is  society's  duty  to 
create  within  them  moral  and  social  senses  which  will  show 
them  that  the  life  they  now  live  is  but  a  part  of  life,  the 
individual,  and  that  the  great  life  of  society  is  beyond  their 
conception,  and  holds  within  it  joys  unknown  to  the  indi- 
vidual, except  in  service  to  the  race  consciously  performed 
under  a  scientific  social  sense.  Then  the  laws  of  society  will 
be  executed  the  same  as  the  laws  of  the  individual  and  the 
laws  of  nature,  and  society  will  be  a  conscious  organism,  as 
the  individual  to-day  is  a  conscious  organism. 

It  is  true  that  classes,  when  performing  some  natural 
function  which  originates  some  social  function,  for  example, 
government,  are  not  to  blame  for  persisting  in  it,  for  the 
race  through  them  is  performing  its  social  function.  But 
there  comes  a  time  when  the  classes  learn,  through  the 
moral  and  social  senses,  that  they  are  usurping  a  social  func- 
tion, then  their  persistent  usurpation  is  the  greatest  crime 
known  to  hmuanity.  Individualism  in  all  of  its  phases  has 


THE  FINAL  SYNTHESIS  OF  NATURE        391 

reached  this  stage  to-day,  and  the  knowledge  of  this  fact 
from  now  on  makes  the  individual  culpable. 

IV 

If  the  laws  of  thought  are  not  observed  by  the  majority  of 
minds,  the  laws  of  the  social  organism,  the  most  economic 
ways  energies,  feelings  and  emotions  can  expend  themselves 
in  society,  are  in  a  still  more  imperfect  condition  to-day,  for 
with  society  to  observe  the  law  is  the  exception.  Many  of 
the  greatest  thinkers  of  the  race  deny  the  right  of  society  to 
control  the  individual  both  positively  and  negatively.  They 
accept  the  apparent  inharmony  of  the  individual  and  society 
to-day  as  permanent,  believe  that  energy  will  never  be 
expended  in  society  except  by  individual  control,  and  will 
never  reach  perfect  economy ;  that  the  present  condition  in 
society  is  due  to  its  intrinsic  nature,  and  disbelieve  in  the 
organic  interdependence  of  all  the  individuals  constituting 
society.  Society  to  them  is  not  an  organism.  It  is  an 
aggregation  of  individuals,  with  no  laws  of  its  own  inde- 
pendent of  its  individuals,  being  controlled  exclusively  by 
the  laws  of  its  units;  a  most  unscientific  and  unnatural 
theory.  The  individualist  can  marshall  a  creditable  array  of 
facts  to  prove  his  theory,  because  the  incipient  organization 
of  society  to-day  goes  far  to  substantiate  such  a  view ;  but  to 
a  truly  philosophical  mind,  one  which  can  grasp  a  concept 
of  nature  and  can  see  the  destiny  of  things  in  their  tend- 
ency, the  final  supremacy  of  the  social  organism  over  the 
individual  organism,  is  one  of  the  most  palpable  of  truths. 
The  laws  of  the  animal  organism  are  approaching  perfection, 
being  the  most  economic  ways  of  expending  the  internal 
energies  of  the  organism,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  indi- 
vidual, that  the  individual  can  use  in  the  performance  of  his 
animal  functions.  As  the  animal  organism,  through  the 
development  of  the  senses  and  the  intellect,  attains  the 
greatest  economy  in  the  expenditure  of  its  energies,  so  will 


392      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

the  social  organism  in  the  future  secure  perfect  economy  in 
the  expenditure  of  its  energies,  feelings  and  emotions, 
through  the  moral  and  social  senses. 

He  who  attempts  to  control  some  natural  energy,  such 
control  being  incompatible  with  its  nature,  invariably  suffers 
for  it;  there  is  an  explosion,  a  collision,  an  accident.  He 
attempts  to  expend  natural  energy  along  lines  not  of  the 
least  resistance,  and  thus  violates  a  law  of  nature.  He  who 
attempts  to  expend  the  energies  of  his  own  organism  in  his 
reactions  to  external  stimuli  so  that  his  energies  do  not  and 
cannot  follow  the  lines  of  the  least  resistance,  suffers  for  it. 
He  violates  a  law  of  human  nature.  The  senses  and  the 
intellect  make  a  unity  of  the  animal  organism,  and  an  organ 
that  uses  the  organism  as  a  whole  to  the  detriment  of  the 
other  organs  invariably  causes  pain  to  the  organism  as  a 
whole,  and,  if  persisted  in,  death.  And  in  society  whenever 
its  units  (individuals)  know  their  social  functions ;  know  that 
society  is  an  organism  with  mutually  dependent  and  inter- 
dependent units;  know  how  to  expend  the  energies  of  society 
in  the  most  economical  manner,  yet  refuse  to  adjust  them- 
selves in  a  cooperative  organism,  then  society  degenerates, 
decays  and  ends  in  dissolution.  Society  must  expend  its 
energy  along  the  lines  of  the  greatest  economy,  or  else  the 
organization  goes  to  pieces.  No  class  can  rule  forever  with- 
out social  degeneration.  Capitalism  must  give  way  to 
cooperation  and  socialization,  as  feudalism  gave  way  to 
capitalism,  or  else  this  violation  of  the  law  of  society  will  end 
in  the  dissolution  of  society,  as  caste  ended  the  civilizations 
of  ancient  times  thousands  of  years  ago. 

Nature,  through  the  senses  and  intellect,  is  so  minutely 
repeated  in  the  individual  that  he  has  little  trouble  in  obey- 
ing its  laws,  expending  his  energies  along  the  lines  of  the 
least  possible  resistance,  or  of  getting  out  of  the  way  of  the 
energies  of  nature  that  are  hurtful  and  of  using  them  that 
are  beneficial.  The  unity  of  the  animal  organism  is  so 


THE  FINAL  SYNTHESIS  OF  NATURE       393 

nearly  complete  that  there  is  little  conflict  between  the 
organs  and  the  organism  in  the  expenditure  of  its  energies 
to  the  betterment  of  the  organism  as  a  whole;  the  greatest 
trouble  comes  from  their  intemperate  expenditure — the 
expenditure  that  is  in  opposition  to  the  moral  and  social 
senses.  The  intellect  of  man  will  never  be  competent  to 
control  the  individual  in  the  expenditure  of  his  energies  in 
the  most  economic  manner,  for  the  intellect  always  acts  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  individual.  Perfect  economy  can 
be  secured  only  through  the  moral  and  social  senses,  which 
regulate  individual  energies  in  the  most  economic  manner 
possible  from  the  point  of  view  of  society.  But  in  the 
phenomena  of  society,  the  expenditure  of  energy,  feelings 
and  emotions  is  so  imperfectly  repeated  in  the  individual 
that  he  is  almost  completely  ignorant  of  the  social  expendi- 
ture of  energy.  The  moral  and  social  senses  have  not  been 
able  to  make  of  the  social  organism  an  organism  sensitive 
alike  in  all  of  its  parts  and  self-determinative  in  all  of  its 
actions.  The  structure  of  the  social  organism,  being  imper- 
fect, it  is  unable  to  perform  its  functions,  owing  to  the  con- 
flict between  its  units  not  working  in  cooperative  harmony. 
An  individual,  a  corporation,  or  a  class  cannot  advance 
itself  to  the  disadvantage  of  society  as  a  whole  without  so 
lowering  the  general  life  of  society  as  to  be  of  a  final  disad- 
vantage to  the  traitorous  individual,  corporation  or  class. 
Fundamentally  the  only  way  to  help  self  is  to  help  all. 

Society  is  a  kind  of  machine.  If  the  individuals  consti- 
tuting it  are  associated  in  it  in  a  certain  way,  their  energies 
will  be  expended  in  the  most  economic  manner  possible. 
These  methods  of  expenditure  of  energy  are  the  laws  of 
society  and  depend  upon  the  organization  of  society  the  same 
as  the  energy  of  the  machine  depends  upon  the  structure  of 
the  machine.  Or,  take  the  closer  analogy  of  the  animal 
organism.  The  way  an  energy  expends  itself  in  an  animal 
organism  depends  upon  the  structure  of  the  animal;  the 


394      THE    SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

structure  depends  upon  the  animal's  actions,  the  actions 
depend  upon  the  animal's  mentality,  and  its  mentality 
depends  upon  its  experience  with  external  energy.  The 
animal  organism  can  vary  its  actions  through  its  mentality, 
and  thus  can  vary  its  structure,  and  so  can  determine  its 
entire  life,  expending  its  energies  in  the  most  economic  man- 
ner possible  from  its  own  point  of  view.  So  society  can  vary 
its  structure,  laws  and  institutions,  through  its  knowledge, 
and  if  there  are  no  logical  social  laws  and  institutions  to-day 
it  is  due  to  the  absence  of  verifiable  knowledge.  Individuals 
constitute  the  materials  of  the  social  organism,  and  whether 
or  not  they  constitute  a  perfect  society  depends  upon  the 
development  of  their  moral  and  social  senses.  But  as  in  the 
development  of  the  individual  there  comes  a  time  when 
the  registered  impressions  of  external  nature,  the  intellect, 
in  the  individual  acquire  sufficient  power  to  control  external 
energies  to  the  advantage  of  the  individual  as  well  as  the 
energies  of  his  own  organism;  so  there  comes  a  time  in  the 
development  of  the  social  organism  when  registered  impres- 
sions of  the  expenditure  of  human  energy  will  develop  in  the 
individual  moral  and  social  senses  so  powerful  that  they  can 
control  the  individual  and  society  as  an  organism,  and 
determine  its  own  development  by  appropriate  laws  and  insti- 
tutions. As  the  animal  organism  spontaneously  forms 
under  the  influence  of  external  energies  light,  heat,  electri- 
city and  so  forth,  so  society  spontaneously  forms  under  the 
influence  of  human  energies.  And  just  as  the  time  comes 
when  the  animal  reaches  self-consciousness,  so  the  time 
comes  when  society  reaches  social-consciousness.  Both  the 
individual  and  society  can  be  traced  to  efficient  causes ;  both 
can  be  explained  by  natural  laws.  And  whether  or  not  the 
reformer  proselytizes,  or  the  conservative  persecutes,  it  mat- 
ters not,  the  natural  action,  interaction  and  reaction  of  the 
factors  of  nature,  physical,  organic  and  social,  will  inevitably 
end  in  a  perfect  social  organism  just  as  the  factors  of  organic 


THE  FINAL  SYNTHESIS  OF  NATUKE        395 

nature  have  produced  the  animal  organism  as  we  see  it 
to-day. 

All  efforts  to  give  a  naturalistic  synthesis  of  nature,  life, 
mind  and  society  are  arrogantly  rejected  by  the  orthodox 
school  of  moralists.  Just  as  man  invented  machines,  just  as 
he  made  discoveries  in  nature,  and  what  one  man  did  was 
accepted  by  all,  so  has  the  race,  since  it  began,  adopted  the 
improvements  of  its  moral  and  social  inventors,  and  made 
what  was  originated  by  one  man  the  property  of  all.  And 
just  as  the  external  energies  of  nature  have  suggested 
machines  to  one  mind  whereby  external  energies  can  be 
directed  to  individual  advantage,  so  has  the  expenditure  of 
human  energy  suggested  to  individuals  laws  and  institutions 
whereby  human  energy  can  be  expended  to  social  advantage. 
All  that  each  suggestion  has  been  is  a  more  economic  way  of 
expending  energy ;  and  as  man  in  one  case  adopted  the  sug- 
gestion instinctively,  so  did  he  in  the  other,  and  each  has 
been  perfected  by  the  laws  of  repetition.  The  origin  of 
morality  to  control  individual  energy  is  no  more  divine  than 
the  origination  of  a  machine  to  control  natural  energy ;  and 
the  one  is  as  necessary  to  human  perfection  as  the  other  is 
to  perfect  expenditure  of  natural  energies.  Thus  there  is  an 
intellectual  as  well  as  a  moral  qualification  for  the  salvation 
of  the  human  race. 

Mankind  acting  from  individual  initiative  and  under  private 
porporations  and  classes,  has  accomplished  all  that  it  can  do. 
If  the  race  cannot  become  consciously  social,  deliberately  and 
scientifically  social,  originate  and  develop  moral  and  social 
senses  more  active,  more  far-seeing,  more  social,  than  the  theo- 
logical social  sense  of  to-day,  or  our  individualistic  scientific 
social  sense,  which  stands  off  and  sees  fair  play  in  the  struggle 
for  existence,  not  attempting  to  avoid  the  struggle  by  rightly 
directing  all  of  the  contending  energies,  then  the  race  will 
suffer  another  decadence  and  the  plains  of  America  may 
become  as  the  plains  of  Asia  and  Africa;  and  Australia  and 


396      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

Xew  Zealand  or  Central  Africa  may  become  the  seat  of  a 
new  civilization,  and  leave  the  bad  of  ours  as  we  did  with 
Eastern  civilization,  and  with  this  fructification  of  a  new 
environment  develop  a  system  of  society  which  will  realize  the 
perfect  expenditure  of  energy,  the  ultimate  perfection  of 
man.  The  twentieth  century  will  decide  which  of  these  sup- 
positions will  take  place. 

It  stands  to  reason  that  nature  is  one  thing — either  natural 
or  supernatural.  All  we  have  to  do  is  to  read  nature  as  we 
find  it.  Science,  owing  to  the  foolish  demands  of  theology, 
has  been  looking  for  impossible  things — missing  links,  transi- 
tional forms,  the  scaffoldings  of  nature.  All  there  is  is  before 
us.  We  must  see  the  like  under  diverse  forms,  the  many  in 
the  one,  the  one  nature  in  all  guises.  When  once  we  have 
gotten  rid  of  the  thought-stopping  theories  of  our  ancestors 
nature  is  very  simple.  The  monism  in  this  book,  stated 
fully  in  theory  to-day,  will  be  demonstrated  to-morrow  in 
fact.  Eeally,  the  Greeks  and  the  East  Indians  had  the 
advantage  of  us  in  philosophizing,  for  they  never  had  to 
contend  with  a  thought-stopping  social  sense  such  as 
theology  is,  and  we  to-day  are  taking  up  theories  of  nature, 
life,  mind  and  society  where  they  left  off  two  thousand 
years  ago.  Xo  wonder  the  Dark  Ages  followed !  But  the 
great  wonder  is  that  the  race  has  ever  recovered  its  monis- 
tic, naturalistic  way  of  looking  at  things.  The  race,  when  it 
adopts  monism  as  its  avowed  philosophy,  will  make  as  much^ 
progress  intellectually,  morally  and  socially  in  one  century 
as  it  made  physically  in  the  nineteenth  century  with  its 
great  inventions  and  discoveries.  Then  the  race  will  be 
socialized. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

WHAT   SOCIALIZATION    OF    HUMANITY   WILL   ACCOMPLISH. 


When  society  by  public  corporate  knowledge,  the  social 
sense,  is  realized,  places  for  all  will  be  determined  before- 
hand; there  will  be  no  uncertainty,  no  fear  for  the  future  of 
our  children;  life  will  be  an  abiding  society.  The  social 
organism  will  use  every  person  to  his  best  advantage ;  every 
person  will  be  placed  in  that  position  in  society,  by  natural 
segregating  and  differentiating  processes,  best  suited  to  him; 
every  person  will  have  the  greatest  opportunity  to  develop  his 
entire  nature  and  attain  the  greatest  possible  happiness  com- 
patible with  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  all.  The  economy 
introduced  into  society  by  public  corporate  guidance  of  human 
energy  will  be  perfect ;  the  improvement  made  in  the  life  of 
the  individual  will  be  incalculable. 

What  the  individual  has  done  in  the  guidance  of  the  oppos- 
ing, neutralizing  and  wasting  energies  of  nature,  combining 
them,  organizing  them,  conserving  them,  transmuting 
them,  directing  them  to  one  end  by  making  them  subserve 
the  individual,  and  thus  indirectly  benefit  society  with  ener- 
gies which,  if  uncontrolled  and  unguided,  would  end  in 
actions  to  the  detriment  of  the  individual,  and  reduce  his  life 
to  the  lowest  plane  on  which  society  can  exist;  this  con- 
scious society  can  do  with  the  energies  of  the  individual.  As 
the  individual  has  invented  machines  to  control  heat,  light, 
electricity,  mechanical  energy,  so  can  conscious  society 
invent  institutions  to  control  love,  ambition,  selfishness, 
cupidity,  antipathy,  religion,  and  all  the  individual  energies. 

397 


398      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

Social  institutions  to-day  are  successful  only  in  proportion 
as  they  are  a  result  of  verifiable  knowledge  wisely  blended 
with  the  inherited  institutions  of  the  race;  they  are  too 
often  a  result  of  the  inherited  concepts  of  an  ignorant  and 
superstitious  past  uninfluenced  by  the  scientific  knowledge 
of  the  present;  but  even  with  all  of  their  imperfections, 
human  institutions  demonstrate  beyond  a  doubt  that  they 
can  do  for  the  control  of  the  energies  of  the  individual  what 
machines  have  done  for  the  control  of  the  energies  of 
nature;  and  when  they  are  a  result  of  verifiable  knowledge, 
uniformly  distributed  throughout  society,  upheld  by  the 
reasons  of  science  and  the  sanction  of  religion,  then  we  will 
see  the  same  economy  in  society  in  the  expenditure  of  indi- 
vidual energies  that  we  now  see  in  the  expenditure  of  the 
energies  of  nature  when  controlled  by  the  individual. 

How  absurd  are  most  of  the  prevalent  ways  of  governing 
society  to-day !  If  society  were  sufficiently  religious  so  that 
it  could  be  organized  according  to  agreement,  represent- 
atives of  the  nations  of  humanity  could  meet  and  agree  to 
some  scientifically  thought  out  system  of  society,  the 
majority  to  rule,  and  how  easy  it  would  be  to  frame  a  system 
of  society  which  would  expend  all  human  energy  in  the  most 
economic  manner  possible!  Then  protective  tariffs  and 
internal  revenues  would  be  relegated  to  the  limbo  of  forgot- 
ten expedients  of  extravagant  kings  and  rulers,  who  originated 
them  so  that  vast  quantities  of  revenue  could  be  raised 
without  the  people  knowing  it,  and  a  system  of  honest  taxa- 
tion could  be  inaugurated.  How  easy  it  would  be  to  do  away 
with  our  individualistic  system  of  money  and  introduce  a 
social  money  based  on  the  multiple  standard  and  the  quanti- 
tative theory!  But  with  our  ignorance,  our  foolish  partisan- 
ship, our  dishonesty,  our  unholy  conservatism,  being  under 
the  hypnotism  of  capital,  our  struggle  for  existence,  our 
absurd  preparations  for  war,  our  lack  of  real  religion,  little 
progress  can  be  made.  All  we  can  hope  for  by  such  means 


WHAT  SOCIALIZATION  WILL  ACCOMPLISH  390 

is  healthful  growth.  But  when  the  great  enthusiasm,  relig- 
ion, based  upon  morality,  gets  behind  political  changes,  social 
reforms  and  moral  progress,  then  capital  flaunting  the  black 
flag  of  panic  will  deter  no  one ;  for  religion  is  an  emotion 
that  thrives  on  hardship,  sacrifice,  death;  it  is  incapable  of 
fear  or  intimidation.  We  may  yet  accomplish  what  is  now 
deemed  perfectly  impossible  from  lack  of  incentive,  motor 
power.  Keligion  will  yet  perfect  the  race.  It  alone  is 
capable  of  counteracting  self-interest  by  the  creation  of 
social  interest,  making  life  once  more  as  intense  as  the  tribal 
life  of  our  ancestors,  yet  perfectly  conscious.  The  retarda- 
tions of  conservatism  will  be  as  thin  air  when  conscious 
society,  motived  by  religion  based  upon  morality,  directs  all 
the  energies  of  society  into  the  most  economic  channels  pos- 
sible in  the  nature  of  things.  There  will  be  none  of  that 
getting  together  of  the  leading  men  of  the  world  and  decid- 
ing that  things  shall  be  done  so  and  so,  and  be  declared 
right  because  done  so  and  so,  regardless  of  truth  and  error, 
right  and  wrong,  misery  of  the  many,  happiness  of  the  few, 
as  to-day ;  for  with  the  motor  power  of  true  religion  in  our 
hearts  and  the  far-seeing  view  of  a  scientific  social  sense  in 
our  heads,  we  will  not  stop  short  of  the  perfect  expenditure 
of  energy  in  all  of  our  actions. 

II 

What  the  individual  has  done  for  the  cereals,  fruits  and 
vegetables  by  taking  them  from  under  the  energies  of  nature 
and  placing  them  under  the  guidance  of  ideas  in  a  perfect 
habitat  created  by  ideas,  this  can  conscious  society  do  for 
the  individual  by  taking  him  from  under  individual  feeling 
and  conflicting  ideas  by  developing  in  him  a  moral  sense  as 
acute  to  injustice  to  another  as  to  self,  a  sympathy  that  feels 
from  one  end  of  the  social  organism  to  the  other,  an  imag- 
ination that  sees  the  consequences  of  every  act  before  it  is 
performed,  and  by  placing  him  under  institutions  created 


400      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

by  public  corporate  knowledge,  the  social  sense,  which  will 
expend  his  energies  in  the  most  economic  manner  possible. 

The  law  of  natural  selection  does  not  operate  in  the 
development  of  our  fruits,  cereals  and  vegetables;  they 
expend  their  energies  according  to  ideas.  The  natural 
energies  of  cultivated  plants  are  not  wasted  in  opposition 
and  neutralization  of  the  struggle  for  existence,  but  are 
made  to  follow  a  definite  plan,  and  thus  all  of  it  is  saved 
and  not  wasted.  The  law  of  repetition  does  not  operate  as 
in  blind  nature,  but  under  the  conscious  guidance  of  ideas. 
Cultivated  plants  are  produced  by  the  social  law  of  the  con- 
scious expenditure  of  energy  in  opposition  to  the  blind 
expenditure  of  nature.  This  is  an  example  of  the  expendi- 
ture of  energy  according  to  the  fourth  law  of  motion — action 
from  ideas. 

Just  as  the  individual  in  his  care  for  the  cereals,  fruits 
and  vegetables  eliminates  hard  adverse  circumstances  and 
supplies  favorable  conditions;  just  as  the  cereals,  fruits  and 
vegetables  are  given  absolute  liberty  to  realize  their  greatest 
possible  development  by  having  all  impediments  removed 
and  having  supplied  to  them  all  the  necessaries  and  oppor- 
tunities for  such  development,  all  of  their  energies  being 
expended  according  to  ideas  along  the  lines  of  the  least  pos- 
sible resistance,  the  greatest  possible  economy;  so  will  the 
individual,  under  institutions  created  by  public  corporate 
knowledge,  the  social  sense,  and  motived  by  religion  based 
on  morality,  be  developed.  The  struggle  for  existence  will 
not  operate,  because  public  corporate  knowledge,  not  indi- 
vidual feeling,  a  blind  moral  sense,  and  the  conflicting  ideas 
of  a  theological  social  sense,  will  determine  every  action. 
The  struggle  for  existence  is  nothing  but  diff erent  ways  of 
expending  energy  contending  with  one  another,  and  public 
corporate  knowledge  will  do  away  with  all  of  this  conflict  by 
supplying  concepts  that  are  the  most  economic  methods  of 
the  expenditure  of  energy  possible.  There  will  be  no  pov- 


WHAT  SOCIALIZATION  WILL  ACCOMPLISH  401 

erty,  because  every  one  will  produce  what  he  can,  and  receive 
what  he  needs,  service  for  service.  The  property  of  society 
will  be  produced,  distributed  and  consumed  according  to 
public  corporate  knowledge,  and  not  customs,  laws  and  insti- 
tutions well  enough  adapted  to  primitive  society,  but  which, 
in  the  advanced  society  of  to-day,  allow  egotistic  individuals 
to  organize  private  corporations  which  actually  usurp  the 
functions  of  society  as  a  social  organism  and  render  injustice 
and  misery,  not  only  to  others,  but  likewise  to  their  own 
members ;  for  in  taking  everything  from  the  laborer  but  a 
bare  subsistence,  they  reduce  the  level  of  life  in  the  social 
organism  to  such  an  extent  that  under  the  most  favorable 
circumstances  it  is  scarcely  worth  living. 

War,  the  other  of  the  triad  of  the  horrors  of  civilization, 
with  poverty  and  the  struggle  for  existence,  will  be  dispensed 
with  because  it  is  based  on  feeling  of  the  lowest  kind — the 
feeling  that  the  sole  function  of  life  is  to  acquire  property, 
territory,  the  means  of  subsistence,  totally  neglecting  the 
conception  of  the  perfection  of  the  race  through  knowledge 
and  religion,  for  its  physical  perpetuation  through  property ; 
and  being  controlled  in  the  dissipation  of  natural  energy  on 
the  lowest  possible  plane,  that  of  expending  energy  along 
the  line  of  the  least  resistance  determined  by  the  contending 
energies,  or  armies. 

War  will  become  a  thing  of  the  past  whenever  nations, 
through  life  by  the  moral  and  social  senses,  become  so  inter- 
dependent that  it  will  be  as  injurious  to  the  nation  attack- 
ing as  the  one  attacked;  then  the  individual  will  cease  to 
look  upon  a  mandate  of  the  state  as  a  voice  of  God  licensing 
him  to  kill  and  murder.  Ten  years  of  free  trade  would 
make  the  nations  of  the  earth  so  interdependent  that  war 
would  be  an  impossibility;  for  any  nation  that  would  disturb 
the  commercial  harmony  of  the  world  would  be  ostracized  by 
the  whole  socialized  world  for  its  offence.  It  is  not  only  the 
privileged  manufacturing  class  that  upholds  the  protective 


402      THE   SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

system,  but  the  privileged  class  which  escapes  paying  legiti- 
mate taxes  that  looks  upon  free  trade  with  the  most  selfish 
horror.  It  is  the  tax-dodger  who  upholds  the  tariff,  not  for 
the  purpose  of  protection  to  industries,  but  to  make  the 
masses  pay  the  taxes  of  the  classes.  Tariff  taxation,  a 
species  of  warfare,  is  the  most  unjust  system  of  taxation  ever 
devised,  but  the  persons  it  wrongs  do  not  know  it.  It  thus 
passes  unrebuked,  and  awaits  abandonment  under  a  more 
perfect  moral  and  social  sense.  Then  war  will  be  a  thing 
of  the  past,  and  free  trade  will  be  its  principal  slayer. 
Just  as  capital  punishment  has  given  place  to  punishment 
by  fine  and  imprisonment,  so  will  nations  learn  to  punish 
nations  without  murdering  them.  England  was  hurt  infi- 
nitely more  by  disturbed  economic  relations  with  the  Boer 
republics  than  by  shot  and  shell. 

If  the  nations  of  the  world  would  enter  into  a  treaty  of 
peace  to  boycott  the  trade  of  the  nations  guilty  of  the  tragedy 
of  war,  it  would  be  a  more  successful  security  for  peace  than 
vast  armies  and  ever-increasing  navies;  for  the  greed  for  gain, 
our  property  instinct,  is  much  stronger  than  our  misdirected 
religious  instinct  to  the  common  soldier  which  sanctions  war. 
In  fact,  the  chief  motive  for  war  to-day  is  the  over-awing  fear 
of  nation  for  nation,  the  lack  of  confidence,  the  want  of  a 
religion  that  can  bind  the  race  together  in  peace  and  secu- 
rity. A  world-treaty  of  peace  could  be  arranged  by  the 
appointment  of  a  world-peace  conference.  Each  nation 
could  contribute  so  much  to  its  support  in  paying  commis- 
sioners and  agents,  if  need  be  armies  and  navies,  for  carrying 
out  its  decrees;  and  the  penalty  for  its  violation  could  be 
trade-boycott,  ostracism  and  excommunication,  arranged  in 
the  nature  of  punishments.  After  a  given  date  no  nation 
should  be  allowed  to  make  any  further  preparations  for  war, 
the  drafting  of  soldiers,  or  the  increasing  of  navies.  And  all 
international  differences  could  be  settled  by  this  peace  con- 
ference, comprising  the  representatives  of  the  entire  world. 


WHAT  SOCIALIZATION  WILL  ACCOMPLISH  403 

If  such  a  plan  were  entered  into  on  a  scale  sufficiently  large, 
employing  thousands  of  agents  in  all  lauds,  and  being 
sanctioned  by  scientific  moral  and  social  senses  and  upheld 
by  religion  based  upon  morality,  it  would  be  successful; 
and  even  if  it  were  to  cost  a  billion  dollars  a  year,  it  would 
be  the  greatest  saving  of  energy  known  to  the  race,  and  its 
accomplishment  the  greatest  achievement  of  humanity. 
This  peace  conference  would  be  a  nucleus  for  the  unity  of 
the  race,  from  an  economic  point  of  view,  to  be  fully  effected 
by  a  scientific  moral  and  social  sense  and  a  religion  based 
upon  morality  as  the  race  became  more  and  more  socialized. 

HI 

But  war  will  never  cease  so  long  as  man  is  as  ignorant  and 
superstitious  as  he  is.  The  great  change  needed  in  the 
world  is  a  moral  sense  based  upon  knowledge,  and  a  religion 
based  upon  morality ;  then  society  will  become  a  conscious 
organism.  Whenever  our  system  of  education  sees  that  its 
function  is  to  adapt  man  to  his  immediate  environment,  nat- 
ural and  social,  instead  of  teaching  him  some  inherited  cur- 
ricula consisting  chiefly  of  useless  dead  languages  and  dry 
unconnected  facts,  which  adapted  gentlemen  and  ecclesiastics 
to  life  hundreds  of  years  ago,  then  will  this  desideratum  be 
reached. 

Of  necessity  the  materials  of  education  must  change  as  the 
race  develops.  It  stands  to  reason  that  a  system  of  study 
originated  when  our  theological  social  sense  held  sway  can- 
not adapt  us  to  an  environment  when  a  scientific  social  sense 
holds  sway.  Latin  was  originally  studied  because  of  the 
Vulgate  version  of  the  Bible;  Greek  on  account  of  the 
Septuagint  version.  Our  modern  university  was  originally  a 
divinity  school,  then  evolved  into  a  school  for  gentlemen, 
and  retains  practically  its  original  course  of  study  even  in 
this  day  of  science.  Common  sense  ought  to  teach  one  that 
as  education  is  an  artificial  adjustment  of  one  to  nature  and 


404      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

society,  and  that  if  nature  has  been  subdued  by  invention 
and  society  has  been  changed  by  evolution,  the  materials  of 
education  should  also  be  changed;  yet  while  we  have  become 
the  masters  of  nature,  turning  all  of  its  energies  to  our 
advantage,  and  our  social  environment  has  made  almost  a 
complete  evolution,  taking  the  sovereignty  from  one,  the 
king,  and  giving  it  to  the  many,  the  people,  recognizing  no 
privileged  classes,  giving  the  common  man  a  life  of  security 
undreamed  of  by  the  nations  of  the  past;  still  our  system  of 
education  is  one  inherited  from  the  past  and  not  in  accord 
with  the  nature  we  have  subdued  and  the  civilization  we 
have  developed. 

But  with  all  its  faults,  the  hope  of  the  race  lies  in  the 
school.  It  is  through  the  school  that  each  generation  is  to 
have  developed  its  moral  and  social  senses.  The  school  bids 
fair  to  be  the  sacred  institution  of  the  race,  to  supplant  the 
church  and  supplement  the  home.  It  is  certainly  the  great- 
est institution  of  modern  civilization;  and  the  instinct  with 
which  it  is  upheld,  believed  in,  defended,  shows  its  impor- 
tance to  the  future  of  humanity. 

The  primal  mistake  in  modern  education  is  man's  favorite 
error,  that  of  mistaking  the  means  for  the  end,  the  symbol 
for  the  thing  symbolized.  The  great  instrument  of  all 
knowledge  is  language ;  but  language  itself  is  no  more  knowl- 
edge, mental  food,  than  money  is  physical  food;  yet  it  is  with 
language  that  we  obtain  mental  food,  knowledge,  as  it  is 
with  money  we  obtain  physical  food.  Language  is  a  tool  of 
knowledge;  money  is  a  tool  of  trade.  Both  are  represent- 
atives. It  would  be  bad  enough  to  make  higher  education 
consist  chiefly  in  learning  one's  own  language,  but  to  make 
it  consist  in  learning  foreign  and  dead  languages  shows  us 
that  indeed  higher  education  is  largely  an  ornament,  a 
luxury,  as  Spencer  said  it  was  thirty  years  ago,  and  is 
affected  by  the  wealthy  classes  that  do  not  have  to  adapt 
themselves  to  nature  and  society  to-day,  having  had  left 


WHAT  SOCIALIZATION  WILL  ACCOMPLISH  405 

them  the  accumulated  wealth  of  ancestors  to  live  upon. 
The  education  that  makes  fortunes,  that  understands  nature 
and  society,  that  writes  great  literature,  that  sees  deep  into 
the  heart  of  things,  is  obtained  from  experience  in  living, 
from  a  profound  investigation  of  nature,  life,  mind  and 
society,  not  from  four  years  of  athletics  and  the  study  of 
dead  and  foreign  languages. 

There  is  no  subject  taught  that  is  more  absurdly  taught 
than  one's  own  language,  but  the  absurdity  of  teaching  every 
other  language  except  one's  own  is  the  one  that  confronts  us 
to-day  in  our  modern  higher  education.  While  the  principle 
of  the  division  of  labor  holds  good  in  every  other  department 
of  life,  yet  in  acquiring  knowledge  by  reading  it  is  contended 
that  every  one  must  do  his  own  translating.  It  would  be 
just  as  absurd  for  every  individual  to  do  his  own  producing 
in  every  other  line,  as  for  him  to  learn  all  the  languages  of 
the  earth  in  order  to  understand  the  knowledge  they  con- 
tain. Not  more  than  one  student  in  a  hundred  ever  learns  a 
foreign  or  dead  language  so  he  can  use  it;  while  every 
attempt  at  the  study  of  the  sciences,  the  fine  and  the  useful 
arts  meets  with  some  success.  If  words  are  coins  with  which 
we  circulate  knowledge,  then  to  learn  more  than  one  language 
is  to  mistake  the  means  for  the  end,  and  treasure  the  symbol, 
words,  for  the  thing  symbolized,  knowledge.  There  can  be  no 
scientific  system  of  higher  education  so  long  as  it  is  deemed  an 
education  to  learn  dead  and  foreign  languages.  All  the 
knowledge  of  the  world  should  be  put  into  the  leading  lan- 
guages of  Western  civilization  by  specially  trained  linguists. 
It  is  absolutely  impossible  for  scholars  to  do  this  for  them- 
selves, let  alone  others ;  besides,  the  study  of  language  incapa- 
citates one  for  the  study  of  nature,  life,  mind  and  society,  by 
not  bringing  the  mind  in  contact  with  the  elements  and 
energies  of  nature,  and  thus  enable  one  to  develop  the  powers 
of  observation  and  comparison,  and  to  learn  the  art  of  experi- 
mentation, the  science  of  accumulating  knowledge  from 


406       THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF   HUMANITY 

experience,  instead  of  blindly  obtaining  it  by  absorption, 
intuition  and  inspiration.  All  kinds  of  absurd,  illogical  and 
savage  institutions  can  live  on  even  to-day,  because,  instead 
of  a  system  of  scientific  education,  we  have  a  system  of  use- 
less erudition,  the  education  of  a  gentleman,  inherited  from 
an  aristocratic  past  that  no  more  contemplated  the  democ- 
racy of  humanity  than  it  did  the  unification  of  the  race. 
Not  until  our  system  of  education  produces  in  us  a  sound 
moral  sense  and  an  oriented  social  sense  need  we  hope  to  see 
realized  the  socialization  of  the  race. 

When  society  is  controlled  by  verifiable  public  corporate 
knowledge  there  will  be  a  federation  of  nations,  a  unity  of 
the  entire  race.  Then  our  materialistic  concept  of  life  will 
be  discarded  for  the  true  method  of  living,  that  of  seeing 
how  much  of  nature  can  be  realized  within  one's  self,  how 
much  of  society,  in  the  form  of  exquisite  feelings  and  exhil- 
arating ideas,  making  life  a  continuous  delight;  being  free 
from  care,  from  fear,  from  want,  from  uncertainty,  the 
banes  of  modern  civilization;  having  perfect  freedom  to 
expend  all  of  one's  energies  along  the  lines  of  the  greatest 
possible  economy ;  having  perfect  self-confidence ;  being  filled 
with  lofty  ambitions,  hope  and  the  highest  ideals,  and 
experiencing  true  religion,  the  greatest  emotion  of  humanity; 
having  all  the  assistance  that  the  social  organism  can  give 
one  in  realizing  the  full  capacity  of  one's  entire  nature. 
Nations  will  vie  with  one  another  in  intellectual  and  moral 
achievements.  The  accumulations  of  one  nation  will  not 
/diminish  by  becoming  the  property  of  all,  as  it  is  now  with 
the  crude  materialistic  life  we  live.  Then  will  be  realized 
the  possibilities  of  matter  and  energy  here  on  earth  in  their 
long  and  tortuous  evolution  from  primal  mist  to  the  perfect 
social  organism,  from  the  expenditure  of  energy  with  the 
greatest  waste  to  expenditure  of  energy  with  perfect  econ- 
omy, the  acme  of  the  development  of  the  universal  process. 

Then  the  theological  social  sense  will  be  no  more.     Its 


WHAT  SOCIALIZATION  WILL  ACCOMPLISH  407 

wonderful  allegory  will  be  perfectly  manifest  to  all,  and  the 
race  will  live  a  perfectly  conscious  existence.  How  grand  it 
is  at  last  to  know  what  tho  great  idea  God  stands  for;  that  it 
is  to  society,  the  race,  that  we  owe  everything ;  that  it  is  in 
our  power  to  repay  our  debt  of  infinite  gratitude ;  that  onr 
prayers  can  be  heard  and  answered ;  that  our  hopes  can  be 
attained;  that  our  ambitions  can  be  realized,  not  perhaps  as 
we  had  ignorantly  guessed,  in  another  life,  but  here  on 
earth ;  that  the  great  race  is  to  us  the  correlate  on  which  to 
lean  in  times  of  need,  in  times  of  sorrow,  and  the  great  cause 
to  uphold,  to  live  for,  and  to  bless,  the  God  to  serve  as  the 
author  and  perfecter  of  our  being  in  all  its  wonder,  beauty 
and  mystery.  At  last  we  know  that  it  is  the  race's  influence 
upon  us  and  our  dependence  upon  it,  our  overwhelming  fear 
of  it,  our  instinctive  love  for  it,  that  are  the  factors  that  pro- 
duce the  sublime  idea,  God.  At  last  the  poet's  exclama- 
tion: "Canst  thou  by  searching  find  out  God?"  is  answered 
in  the  affirmative  by  tracing  the  effects  to  their  causes ;  and 
what  exhilarating  joy  in  this  answer,  in  this  fundamental 
knowledge !  At  last  we  see  that  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
is  the  life  of  the  race ;  that  religion  is  a  reaction  from  living 
one's  highest,  truest,  most  beautiful  nature.  This  is  the 
peace  that  passeth  understanding,  and  it  is  within  the  reach 
of  every  human  being  in  the  human  race. 

IV 

What  the  individual  has  done  for  the  domestic  animals, 
taking  them  from  under  the  control  of  feeling,  and  placing 
them  under  the  control  of  ideas,  thus  doing  away  with  the 
struggle  for  existence  among  them  by  introducing  expendi- 
ture of  energy  by  knowledge;  so  can  conscious  corporate 
society  do  for  the  individual,  avoiding  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence among  human  beings  by  creating  a  socialization  that 
will  give  free  scope  to  the  individual  to  develop  his  entire 
nature,  both  social  and  individual,  by  supplying  him  with 


408       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

laws  and  institutions  for  the  expenditure  of  his  energies  that 
will  avoid  all  conflict  and  secure  perfect  economy.  Society 
to-day  has  done  much  to  control  the  egotistic  energies  of  the 
individual  through  civil  and  criminal  law;  but  what  it  has 
clone  so  far  has  been  only  to  see  fair  play  in  the  struggle  for 
existence.  It  has  not  pointed  out  the  way  these  struggling 
energies  should  be  expended  so  that  there  will  be  no  waste 
of  energy,  hence  no  struggle,  and  it  has  not  supplied  the 
motive,  religion,  to  insure  execution  of  even  the  laws  we 
have.  Just  as  the  individual,  before  the  development  of  the 
science  of  mathematics,  measured  and  calculated,  so  to-day 
before  the  development  of  a  perfect  social  sense,  society 
imperfectly  and  wastefully  controls  the  expenditure  of  the 
individual's  energies.  But  as  the  individual  by  the  develop- 
ment of  the  science  of  mathematics  learned  to  measure  and 
calculate  accurately,  so  will  society  through  a  scientific  social 
sense  originate  institutions  that  will  as  accurately  and  as 
exactly  determine  how  individual  energy  shall  be  expended 
beforehand  as  we  now  calculate  the  structure  of  a  building 
before  we  erect  it ;  and  this  knowledge  will  supplant  theology, 
and  true  religion  based  upon  it  will  be  the  motive  power  of 
civilization.  The  problems  of  the  actions  of  individuals  are 
but  complicated  problems  in  mechanics.  The  fact  that  our 
industrial,  commercial  and  business  methods  permit  poverty, 
when,  if  the  wealth  of  the  world  was  justly  distributed 
among  those  who  produce  it,  there  would  be  plenty  for  all, 
shows  conclusively  that  poverty  is  perfectly  unnecessary; 
that  it  is  not  due  to  a  vice  in  nature,  but  to  a  vice  in 
society;  not  due  to  the  nature  of  energy,  but  to  its  imperfect 
expenditure.  All  that  the  individual  does  for  the  domestic 
animals  is  to  insure  them  the  means  of  subsistence  without 
their  struggling  for  it,  and  their  reproduction  guided  bv 
ideas;  yet  what  wonderful  improvement  this  makes  in  the 
quality  of  the  animal!  All  that  society  will  have  to  do  to 
realize  a  similar  improvement  in  the  individual  is  to  use  the 


WHAT  SOCIALIZATION  WILL  ACCOMPLISH  409 

products  of  the  race  for  the  benefit  of  the  race  as  a  whole 
instead  of  a  favored  few,  and  to  place  the  reproduction  of 
the  individual  and  the  perfection  of  the  social  organism 
under  the  control  of  institutions  created  by  public  corporate 
knowledge. 

To-day  mankind  takes  infinitely  more  pains  in  the  breed- 
ing of  stock,  poultry,  dogs  and  other  domestic  pets  and  ani- 
mals than  in  the  mating  and  rearing  of  human  beings.  Man 
applies  his  knowledge  to  every  other  thing  but  himself.  To 
give  a  naturalistic  explanation  of  love  is  little  less  sacri- 
legious than  to  give  a  naturalistic  explanation  of  religion. 
Nothing  shows  man  still  to  be  an  individual  more  than  that 
his  chief  source  of  happiness  is  the  gratification  of  his  ani- 
mal passions,  instead  of  enjoying  the  supreme  happiness  of 
serving  the  human  race,  developing  in  him  the  divine  ecstasy 
of  religion.  Man's  animal  passions  are  so  abnormally 
developed  by  his  having  made  them  from  anthropoid  ape  up 
his  chief  pleasure  and  amusement,  instead  of  service  to  the 
race,  that  to-day  they  are  still  great  deterrents  in  the  making 
of  man  a  perfect  being,  a  being  who  will  take  his  chief  delight 
in  religious  emotion,  prompting  service  and  sacrifice  to  the 
race. 

How  much  of  life  is  taken  up  with  love,  man's  strongest 
individual  emotion;  how  little  of  life  is  consumed  in  service 
to  the  race,  religion,  man's  chief  social  emotion!  Yet  with 
all  of  this  occupancy  of  the  individual's  attention  with  love, 
it  is  still  executed  blindly ;  it  is  deemed  bad  taste  to  talk  of 
the  scientific  mating  and  breeding  of  human  beings.  Our 
marriage  laws  permit  any  and  all  classes  of  delinquents, 
degenerates,  criminals,  deformed,  diseased,  insane  and 
weaklings  generally  to  marry  and  propagate  the  species,  and 
make  no  effort  by  education  to  get  the  better  kind  of  human 
beings  to  reproduce  themselves.  Courtship  is  blind,  con- 
trolled by  instinct  or  self-interest.  Marriage  is  chiefly  made 
from  motives  of  wealth  and  position  and  not  to  produce  per- 


410       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

feet  human  beings.  There  is  no  attempt  at  mating  persons 
intelligently.  If  there  is  any  subject  that  the  individual 
should  have  scientific  knowledge  about,  it  is  that  of  repro- 
duction; but  imagine  what  a  furor  would  take  place  in  any 
of  our  colleges  or  universities  if  they  were  to  offer  a  course 
in  stirpiculture !  This  will  be  one  of  the  studies  that  will  take 
the  place  of  the  study  of  foreign  and  dead  languages  and 
other  conventional  trash  in  the  colleges  and  universities  of  the 
future.  When  education  becomes  sacred,  that  is,  devotes  its 
time  to  the  conscious  development  of  the  moral  and  social 
senses,  when  it  has  the  definite  purpose  of  adapting  man  to 
nature  and  society,  then  the  expenditure  of  human  energy  will 
be  the  chief  theme,  and  all  of  the  emotions  will  be  treated 
scientifically  and  the  sexes  be  mated  according  to  knowledge, 
not  blind  love  or  cunning  self-interest;  and  religion  will  be 
expended  in  the  most  economic  manner  possible,  will  be  the 
motor  power  of  progress,  as  well  as  the  tie  that  binds  the 
human  race  into  the  social  organism. 


When  the  object  of  education  shall  be  the  development  of 
the  moral  and  social  senses  and  man  once  more  becomes  a 
religious  being,  then  the  perfection  of  society  as  an  organism, 
a  function  of  the  individual  but  dimly  seen  in  Christianity, 
in  philanthropy,  in  love  of  fame,  in  honor  and  glory,  will 
cease  to  be  under  the  sporadic  control  of  blind  feeling, 
instinct,  the  moral  sense,  and  will  become  the  chief  function 
of  society  through  the  social  sense,  and  will  be  a  function 
as  definitely  understood  as  the  function  of  self-preservation 
and  the  reproduction  of  the  species  is  to-day.  Keligion 
to-duy  is  the  blind  worship  of  the  Unknowable,  and  consists 
in  performing  those  actions  found  to  be  conducive  to  human 
welfare,  let  them  be  ceremonies  which  bind  men  together  or 
moral  acts  which  do  good  instinctively,  or  great  beliefs  in 
which  all  can  agree  that  bind  the  race  together.  Every 


WHAT  SOCIALIZATION  WILL  ACCOMPLISH  411 

religious  rite  or  act  is  explained  by  the  concept  of  religion 
which  makes  it  the  instinct  that  binds  man  to  man  in  the 
social  organism.  Such  is  the  religion  of  to-day.  The  relig- 
ion of  the  future  will  be  intelligent  wor&  at  uplifting  and 
perfecting  the  race  through  public  corporate  knowledge,  not 
for  one  day  in  the  week  but  the  entire  seven. 

Eeligion  is  dimly  adumbrated  through  the  whole  animal 
kingdom.  It  is  the  emotion  resulting  from  living  for  and 
working  for  the  species ;  in  the  case  of  man,  living  for  and 
working  for  the  perfection  of  society,  .and  thereby  securing 
the  perfection  of  the  individual.  Religion  began  far  down  in 
the  scale  of  animal  development.  We  see  nascent  traces  of 
it  among  gregarious  animals  in  the  form  of  courage  and 
heroism.  Amongst  human  beings  there  are  none  so  savage 
that  have  no  form  of  religious  expression ;  and  no  matter  how 
crude  the  rite  or  ceremony,  its  function  is  to  bind  the  clan, 
the  tribe,  the  nation  together,  making  it  form  an  organism 
for  mutual  protection  and  support. 

The  three  great  instincts  are  self-preservation  based  upon 
egoism,  perpetuation  of  the  species  based  upon  love,  and  pro- 
tection, preservation  and  perfection  of  the  race  based  upon 
religion,  heretofore  discernible  only  allegorically  and  symbol- 
ically, for  what  was  done  ostensibly  for  the  gods  was  really 
done  for  humanity,  and  thereby  accomplished  the  protection, 
the  preservation  and  the  perfection  of  the  race  unconsciously. 
All  of  these  great  instincts  are  blind.  Man's  selfishness,  ego- 
tism, has  created  the  wealth  of  the  world ;  man's  passion,  love, 
has  produced  half  of  our  great  social  institutions ;  man's  relig- 
ion has  saved  the  race,  protected  it,  and  will  be  the  cause  of 
its  final  perfection.  Religion,  being  a  blind  instinct,  per- 
forms the  function  of  organizing  the  human  race  when  it 
seems  to  be  only  a  worship  of  God;  but  the  other  instincts 
act  as  blindly.  This  is  true  of  love;  for  even  enlightened 
humanity  does  not  recognize  the  biological  functions  of  love 
any  more  than  the  sociologic  functions  of  religion.  Love  is 


412       THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

supposed  to  be  some  ethereal  emotion,  as  far  removed  from 
the  propagation  of  the  species  as  religion  is  from  the  service 
of  preserving,  protecting  and  perfecting  the  race;  yet  love 
always  ends  in  the  reproduction  of  offspring  and  religion  in 
binding  humanity  together  in  one  organism.  There  is  noth- 
ing mysterious  about  either,  except  that  all  instincts  are 
blind,  conservative  and  sacred. 

There  is  some  meaning  put  into  the  universal  practice  of 
sacrifice  in  all  religions,  if  religion  be  understood  to  mean 
the  instinct  of  the  individual  to  protect,  to  preserve  and  to 
perfect  society,  and  to  sacrifice  his  life,  if  need  be,  in  following 
this  blind  instinct.  Religion  is  the  strongest  emotion  of  the 
human  heart,  and  through  its  exercise  the  individual  feels 
the  most  exhilarating  joy  possible  to  human  beings.  The 
compensation  the  martyr  feels  really  makes  his  sacrifice  no 
sacrifice;  for  such  is  the  intense  joy  of  his  moment  of  religious 
ecstasy  that  a  whole  lifetime  of  other  pleasures  is  as  nothing 
when  compared  to  it.  But  of  all  emotions  religion  is  the  least 
understood,  being  surrounded  by  superstitions  and  error. 
Denied  by  the  pseudo-science  of  to-day  as  being  a  phenomenon 
of  healthful,  oriented  humanity,  no  wonder  its  function  is 
misunderstood,  perverted  and  defeated.  But  in  every  maga- 
zine, scientific  book  and  newspaper  we  see  dawnings  of  the 
truth  that  as  the  joy  of  life  has  for  its  function  self-preserva- 
tion; as  love  of  the  opposite  sex  has  for  its  function  the 
reproduction  of  the  individual ;  so  the  ecstasy  of  religion  has 
for  its  function  the  protection,  preservation  and  perfection 
of  the  human  race. 

Religion  to-day  is  largely  generated  by  the  individual 
seeking  his  own  salvation,  and  thereby  blindly  securing  social 
welfare.  Yet  even  in  the  present  form  of  religion  the 
individual  often  sacrifices  his  life  for  the  salvation  of  his 
soul,  blindly  dying  a  martyr's  death,  not  knowing  the  func- 
tion he  is  performing,  that  of  protecting,  developing  and 
perfecting  the  race,  nevertheless  grandly  performing  it,  as 


WHAT  SOCIALIZATION  WILL  ACCOMPLISH  413 

will  attest  religious  history  through  all  ages  and  climes. 
The  individual's  salvation  depends  upon  his  spreading  the 
gospel  to  save  others,  thereby  making  Christianity  a  social 
power  indirectly,  blindly.  How  much  better  it  will  be  to 
aim  at  social  perfection  directly  under  an  oriented  social 
sense  that  will  point  the  way?  Keligion  is  always  the  same, 
let  it  be  under  whatever  creed,  under  whatever  doctrine, 
and  it  will  inspire  just  as  sublime  deeds  when  based  upon 
knowledge  as  when  based  upon  the  theological  social  sense, 
and  be  followed  as  an  instinct  implicitly.  The  present  devo- 
tion of  scientists  to  humanity  shows  this  fact,  as  the  future 
will  show  it  in  the  service  of  the  common  people  to  the  race. 
Love  is  just  as  sweet  when  its  function  is  consciously  under- 
stood as  when  it  is  believed  to  be  a  sickness  due  to  Cupid's 
darts,  or  any  other  of  many  myths  that  have  been  used  to 
explain  it,  or  followed  as  an  instinct  that  drives  one  as 
blindly  as  the  moth  into  the  flame. 

So  will  religion  be  just  as  ecstatic  when  we  know  its  func- 
tion is  to  protect,  preserve  and  perfect  the  race  as  it  is 
to-day  when  it  is  a  result  of  rites  and  ceremonies  performed 
blindly  in  the  worship  of  an  imaginary  God.  Religious  wor- 
ship of  God  is  valuable  to  the  race,  not  for  what  it  con- 
sciously does,  but  for  its  unconscious  association  of  human 
beings,  organizing  them  into  tribes,  nations  and  races. 
Directly  it  does  no  particular  good ;  it  is  in  its  indirect  effects 
that  it  has  been  valuable  to  the  race.  But  there  is  no  neces- 
sity that  religious  service  should  be  a  matter  of  absurd  cere- 
monies ;  it  is  due  to  the  ignorance  and  superstition  of  man. 
There  is  no  reason  why  the  indirect  benefits  of  religion,  the 
protecting  and  perfecting  of  the  race,  when  consciously 
done  will  not  produce  as  sublime  a  religious  emotion  as 
when  unconsciously  done.  Religion  can  be  made  conscious, 
the  same  as  love  or  any  other  emotion.  There  will  be  a 
security  about  religion  when  it  is  known  to  be  due  to  nat- 
ural causes  that  will  produce  transports  of  joy  now  un- 


414        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

known,  and  not  to  be  compared  with  the  emotions  now 
due  to  the  most  scrupulous  lives,  lived  in  the  service  of 
God;  for  let  a  man  be  ever  so  religious  to-day,  it  is  impos- 
sible for  him  to  know  he  is  saved ;  he  only  believes  it,  and 
amidst  his  strongest  hopes  there  are  doubts.  No  man  can 
experience  the  ecstasy  of  religion  in  its  purest  form  except 
the  oriented  man. 

The  religion  of  oriented  man  does  not  take  away  from  him 
a  hope,  but  it  gives  him  a  greater  one.  It  does  not  destroy 
an  aspiration  without  giving  a  higher  one.  It  takes  away  the 
childish  conception  of  the  world,  and  gives  him  the  universal 
point  of  view.  The  religion  here  offered  is  the  religion  all 
others  have  striven  to  realize.  It  is  the  utmost  develop- 
ment of  the  religion  of  the  human  race,  and  when  universal 
will  result  in  heaven  here  on  earth.  If  false  religion  can  do 
so  much,  think  what  the  true  religion  will  do  when  it  is 
believed  in  by  every  one!  Then  will  be  the  millennium 
dreamed  of  by  the  fathers.  It  is  to  religion,  the  great 
dynamic,  that  society  will  accomplish  the  application  of  the 
fifth  and  sixth  laws  of  motion  to  existing  civilization.  It 
will  be  the  motive  of  progress,  and  will  not  be  frightened  or 
troubled  by  appeals  to  self-interest,  fear  or  oppression.  The 
progress  of  the  race,  like  the  evolution  of  the  universal 
process,  is  inevitable. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  for  several  centuries  the  intellec- 
tual side  of  man's  nature  has  been  in  the  ascendency,  his 
religious  instincts  have  been  repressed,  denied  development 
and  satisfaction ;  but  we  are  now  entering  upon  an  era  of 
religious  development  which  will  end  in  the  perfection  of 
the  social  organism.  When  religion  shall  be  based  upon 
morality  and  developed  consciously  by  service  to  the  race, 
guided  and  directed  by  the  moral  and  social  senses,  then 
society  will  be  an  organism  with  known  structure  and 
known  functions;  will  be  studied  and  understood  by  the 
individual,  and  civilization  will  be  a  predictable  structure,  as 


WHAT  SOCIALIZATION  WILL  ACCOMPLISH  415 

the  great  processes  and  effects  of  nature  now  are,  and  the 
socialization  of  the  race  will  be  accomplished.  This  is  the 
desideratum  that  prophets  have  foretold,  that  inspired  poets 
have  sung  of,  that  the  entire  race  has  hoped  for,  and  that 
religion,  when  controlled  by  public  corporate  knowledge, 
will  realize;  then  nature,  the  individual  and  society  will  be 
perfectly  coordinated,  and  all  energy  will  be  expended  to 
one  purpose  and  one  end,  the  perfection  of  the  individual 
through  the  perfection  of  the  social  organism,  and  the  per- 
fection of  the  social  organism  through  the  perfection  of  the 
individual. 

When  society  is  perfectly  oriented,  controlled  by  the 
moral  and  social  senses,  religion  will  cease  to  be  an  instinct, 
and  will  be  developed  consciously  as  we  now  develop  any 
other  emotion  by  doing  those  acts  which  are  a  stimulus  to 
it.  Just  as  we  look  at  a  beautiful  picture  to  produce  in  us 
the  emotion  of  fine  art,  or  witness  a  drama  to  have  aroused 
in  us  any  of  the  many  emotions  it  is  the  function  of  the 
theater  to  produce,  or  listen  to  music  to  have  our  poetic 
natures  aroused,  or  hasten  to  scenes  of  action  or  accident  that 
we  may  become  excited  in  any  way,  or  visit  great  natural 
objects  to  have  created  in  us  the  emotion  of  sublimity,  or 
associate  with  one  of  the  opposite  sex  to  arouse  the  emotion 
of  love ;  so  in  time  the  emotion  of  religion  will  be  consciously 
produced  by  doing  those  acts,  sacrifices,  performing  those 
services,  loving-kindnesses,  which  will  invariably  arouse  it. 
This  is  why  philanthropy  to-day  is  so  popular ;  it  produces 
religion.  This  is  why  service  to  the  race  in  any  and  all 
forms  is  becoming  the  occupation  of  the  good  persons  in  all 
lands,  because  it  produces  religion.  Religion  is  the  animus 
of  the  reformer,  the  genius,  the  martyr,  let  him  know  it  or 
not.  It  is  the  dynamic  of  the  social  organism. 

Whenever  we  have  a  social  sense  that  is  verifiable  knowl- 
edge, a  moral  sense  that  will  be  a  perfect  representation  of 
society  from  the  point  of  view  of  feelings  and  imagination, 


416        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

sympathy,  tender-heartedness  and  loving-kindness,  life  will 
be  consciously  lived.  Then  the  race  will  do  with  the  ener- 
gies of  the  individual  what  the  individual  has  been  able  to 
do  with  the  energies  of  nature,  direct  them  to  his  own 
advantage.  Under  the  control  of  society  all  energy  will  be 
expended  with  perfect  economy. 

The  great  dynamic  to  accomplish  social  perfection  on  earth 
is  religion.  Pope  Leo  XIII.  rightly  said:  "Human  law 
cannot  reach  the  seat  of  the  conflict  between  capital  and 
labor.  Governments  and  legislators  are  helpless  to  restore 
harmony.  .  .  .  The  world  must  be  re- Christianized.  The 
moral  condition  of  the  workingman  and  his  employer  must 
be  improved.  Each  must  look  at  the  other  through  Chris- 
tian eyes.  That  is  the  only  way.  How  vain  are  the  efforts 
of  nations  who  seek  to  bring  contentment  to  man  and  mas- 
ter by  legislation,  forgetting  that  the  Christian  religion  alone 
can  draw  men  together  in  love  and  peace." 

This  is  true  of  religion,  but  not  true  of  Christianity.  The 
only  way  Catholicism  can  once  more  become  the  religion  of 
Western  civilization  is  to  substitute  the  scientific  social  sense 
for  the  theological  social  sense.  For  the  race  no  more  goes 
back  to  its  childhood  in  belief  than  does  man,  and  the  dream 
of  Pope  Leo  XIII.  can  come  true  only  in  that  way.  Never  in 
the  history  of  the  race  has  a  people  taken  up  and  revivified  an 
effete  religion,  but  they  metamorphose  all  of  them ;  and  this 
is  the  hope  of  Catholicism,  and  not  a  return  to  primitive 
beliefs.  All  of  the  exploiters,  oppressors  and  tyrants  of  the 
race  to-day  are  ostensibly  Christians.  Christianity  as  a 
solution  of  the  ills  of  the  race  has  been  tried  and  the  good 
Pope  has  described  the  results.  The  real  solution  is  the 
religion  of  morality,  the  religion  of  knowledge,  which  will 
point  the  way  and  be  the  dynamic  to  accomplish  the  evolu- 
tion, the  perfection  of  the  human  race. 

Eeligion  is  the  only  emotion  that  cannot  be  ridiculed,  that 
cannot  be  frightened,  that  cannot  be  intimidated,  that  can- 


WHAT  SOCIALIZATION  WILL  ACCOMPLISH  417 

not  be  bluffed  or  bullied,  that  cannot  be  bribed,  that  will  not 
compromise,  that  will  not  temporize  and  be  satisfied  with 
less  than  its  demand.  Religion  can  meet  the  capitalistic  cry 
of  panic,  the  whip  of  the  partisan  politician,  the  advice  of 
cowardly  friends,  the  persecution  of  state  and  church, 
the  neglect  of  the  world.  It  is  the  only  invincible  emotion 
the  race  possesses,  the  only  emotion  that  can  conquer  death ! 
Religion  is  what  the  enlightenment  of  the  world  has  halted 
for,  the  only  dynamic  that  can  perfect  humanity  and  attain 
the  ultimate  sociocracy  of  the  race.  It  is  through  religion 
that  conscious  society  will  accomplish  the  perfect  expenditure 
of  energy  here  on  earth  and  realize  the  socialization  of 
humanity ;  and  it  is  by  the  socialization  of  the  race  that  the 
individual  will  attain  perfection. 


CHAPTER   XX 

FORESTALLING    CRITICISM. 


It  may  be  objected  that  the  teachings  of  science  cannot 
develop  as  high  a  quality  of  character  as  the  now  unverifiable 
teachings  of  the  theological  social  sense;  that  the  moral 
sense  cannot  be  consciously  developed,  or  cannot  be  devel- 
oped without  a  belief  in  God  and  the  immortality  of  the 
soul ;  that  knowledge  as  a  social  sense  is  not  so  potent  as  a 
belief  in  theology;  that  religion  cannot  be  based  upon  a 
rational  concept  of  things.  This  opinion  is  due  to  ignorance 
of  human  nature  as  recorded  in  the  history  of  the  human 
race,  and  as  is  seen  in  existing  humanity  to-day.  We  are 
blinded  by  too  close  a  view  of  the  race. 

Mr.  William  H.  Leckey  says:  "The  whole  stoical  system 
of  philosophy,  which  carried  self-sacrifice  to  a  point  that  has 
scarcely  been  equaled,  was  evolved  without  any  assistance 
from  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life."* 

Buddhism,  the  religion  of  half  the  race  to-day,  which 
contests  the  honor  in  sublimity  of  conduct  with  Christianity 
in  its  palmiest  days,  has  neither  a  belief  in  the  immortality 
of  the  soul,  nor  a  belief  in  a  supernatural  God. 

Science  as  a  social  sense  has  just  begun  to  extend  itself 
throughout  society;  yet  it  has  penetrated  much  deeper  than 
the  surface  phenomena  indicate.  Xo  lives  in  all  history 
have  been  nobler,  purer  and  more  useful  than  Tyndall's, 
Darwin's,  Huxley's,  Haeckel's,  than  the  lives  of  Comte, 
Marx  and  Schopenhauer,  and  countless  others  of  their  fol- 

•  History  of  European  Moralt,  Vol.  I.,  p.  184. 

418 


FORESTALLING  CRITICISM  419 

lowers.  All  that  science  needs  to  become  a  social  sense  is 
uniform  distribution  throughout  society.  It  will  invent 
institutions  to  control  individual  energies  as  inevitably  as  it 
has  invented  machines  to  control  natural  energies,  as  it  has 
devised  ways  of  developing  the  cereals,  fruits  and  vegetables ; 
as  it  has  discovered  ways  of  perfecting  the  domestic  animals. 
As  science  has  done  so  much  for  the  individual,  is  it  not 
reasonable  to  believe  that  it  can  and  will  do  as  much  for 
society? 

The  evils  of  society  to-day  are  a  result  of  the  low  condi- 
tion of  development  of  the  moral  and  social  senses  of  the 
race,  its  morality,  its  sociality,  its  science,  its  religion. 
Laws,  institutions  and  methods  of  living  are  a  product  of 
knowledge.  The  savage's  life  is  due  to  what  he  knows. 
Greece  and  Rome  surpassed  all  competitors  on  account  of 
knowledge,  and  fell  through  ignorance.  The  nineteenth 
century  will  live  in  history  on  account  of  its  intellectual 
achievements,  not  its  mechanical  inventions  or  inventions 
in  institutions,  great  and  glorious  as  they  are,  but  on  account 
of  Schopenhauer,  Comte,  Marx,  Darwin,  not  Morse,  Krupp, 
Edison.  Great  as  were  the  services  of  Jefferson  and  Lincoln 
they  were  not  so  great  as  the  services  of  the  thinkers  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  Rousseau,  Voltaire  and  Paine,  who  orig- 
inated the  ideas  they  applied.  And  great  as  is  the  scientist 
who  discovers  and  describes  facts,  yet  the  truly  great  man  is 
the  thinker,  the  philosopher  who  interprets  all  the  facts  of 
nature,  life,  mind  and  society  so  that  every  person  can  have 
a  concept  of  them  in  the  terms  of  his  own  life  which  he 
can  comprehend  and  understand,  realizing  within  himself 
through  the  law  of  repetition  all  of  nature  and  all  of  society, 
thus  becoming  the  acme  of  creation,  the  perfect  individual. 

The  capitalistic  form  of  society  to-day  is  a  direct  outgrowth 
of  the  individualistic  laissez  fa  ire  philosophy  of  the  eight- 
eenth century,  as  the  socialization  of  humanity  in  the 
twentieth  century  will  be  due  to  the  scientific  knowledge  of 


420       THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

the  nineteenth  century.  The  laissez  faire  philosophy,  when 
carried  to  its  logical  conclusions,  is  a  complete  denial  of  the 
right  of  society  to  regulate  the  energies  of  the  individual 
from  the  point  of  view  of  morality,  and  ends  in  the  defeat 
of  the  solidarity  of  humanity,  the  prevention  of  sociocracy, 
making  the  socialization  of  the  race  impossible,  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  social  organism.  If  this  philosophy  is  true, 
society  has  no  more  right  to  control  individual  energy  in  one 
line  than  in  another;  no  more  right  to  make  criminal  laws 
and  civil  laws  than  moral  laws.  The  criminal  is  a  laissez 
fairest,  and  has  just  as  much  right  to  knock  a  man  down 
and  take  his  property  (for  under  laissez  faire  might  is  right) 
as  the  capitalist  has  to  take  advantage  of  customs,  laws  and 
institutions  framed  during  the  simple  life  of  primitive 
peoples,  or  now  lobbied  through  corrupt  legislatures, 
whereby  he  lets  his  victim  live  on  condition  that  he  gives 
him  all  he  can  produce  above  a  bare  subsistence;  only  the 
theft  is  condemned  by  the  moral  sense,  whereas  the  exploita- 
tion is  condemned  by  the  social  sense.  Morality  looks  at  the 
act,  not  the  means  of  accomplishment,  and  no  matter  the 
method,  force,  fraud  or  cunning,  the  guilt  is  just  the  same. 
The  trouble  with  the  world  to-day  is,  we  are  devoid  of  moral- 
ity and  religion.  We  try  to  run  things  by  civil  and  criminal 
law.  The  government  of  the  world  must  be  trusted  to 
morality  and  sustained  by  religion.  Religion  back  of  any- 
thing makes  it  succeed,  without  it  nothing  succeeds;  hence 
the  gilded  failure  of  capitalistic  society  to-day.  Success 
means  happiness,  misery  means  failure;  and  that  form  of 
society  only  is  successful  which  secures  the  greatest  happi- 
ness to  the  greatest  number.  All  others  are  failures. 

The  capitalistic  form  of  society  to-day  is  justified  because 
the  race  is  so  ignorant  that  it  does  not  know  how  to  utilize 
its  own  energies,  and  it  is  more  economical  for  the  race  that 
a  few  use  the  energy  of  all  in  producing  and  conserving  the 
wealth  of  humanity  for  themselves  than  that  it  be  dissipated 


421 

in  waste;  property  being  the  most  important  thing  to 
human  existence  and  development.  But  the  time  will  come 
when  capitalism  will  not  be  justified,  for  the  race  as  a  whole 
will  be  intelligent  and  moral  enough  to  use  all  of  its  energies 
for  itself  as  a  whole ;  then  capitalistic  usurpation  will  be  a 
crime.  Just  as  kingly  usurpation  of  government  was  once 
justifiable,  but  now  is  treason,  and  not  tolerated  in  countries 
which  establish  their  government  by  reason  and  the  consent 
of  the  governed,  so  the  time  will  come  when  capitalism  will 
not  be  tolerated,  it  being  deemed  barbarous  that  individuals 
or  classes  be  allowed  to  appropriate  to  their  own  use  all  the 
property  created  by  society.  It  may  be  a  long  time  before 
such  ideas  become  current,  but  when  religion  gets  behind 
their  promotion  there  will  be  the  greatest  progress  ever 
witnessed  on  earth. 

While  many  may  think  this  a  hard  indictment  of  capital- 
ism, yet  the  time  will  come  when  to  take  any  advantage 
whatever  of  another  will  be  deemed  a  crime ;  life  will  be  a 
mutual  rendering  of  services,  a  mutual  exchange  of  utilities, 
mutual  cooperation.  The  truth  is,  society  is  an  organism, 
the  individuals  are  its  units;  and  it  is  not  only  the  right  of 
society  to  control  all  individuals,  but  its  duty  to  do  so.  And 
the  reason  society  does  not  control  individuals  in  the  expen- 
diture of  all  their  energies  to-day  is  because  it  has  not  a  moral 
sense  sufficiently  developed  to  demand  it,  and  because  it 
does  not  know  how.  It  is  deficient  in  social  sense.  Louis 
the  XIV.  said:  "lam  the  State."  He  was  right;  every- 
thing above  a  bare  subsistence  produced  in  France  was  pro- 
duced for  him.  To-day  the  capitalists  can  say:  "We  are 
the  race!"  They  are  right;  everything  above  a  bare  sub- 
sistence is  produced  for  them.  This  is  preposterous !  It  is 
just  as  impossible  to  divide  anything  produced  in  society,  by 
society  (for  society  produces  everything,  gives  everything  its 
value,  even  makes  a  few  pounds  of  gold  worth  all  the  rest  of 
the  property  in  the  world,  something  intrinsically  absurd), 


422        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

among  individuals  evenly,  justly,  and  yet  beneficently  (for 
either  the  capitalist  or  the  laborer,  or  for  society  as  a  whole) 
as  it  is  to  divide  unjustly,  unevenly,  the  blood  resulting 
from  the  food  one  eats  among  the  various  tissues  of  the 
body  and  yet  produce  healthful  tissues  or  healthful  body. 
The  one  production  as  well  as  the  other  must  of  necessity  be 
produced  for  all  and  be  used  by  all;  each  should  take 
according  to  his  needs  and  produce  according  to  his  func- 
tions. For  property  is  to  the  social  organism  what  blood  is 
to  the  animal  organism,  and  one  should  meet  with  as  just  a 
distribution  according  to  service  and  need  as  the  other. 

But  if  an  average  business  man  is  presented  with  this 
philosophy  he  will  say:  "If  you  deny  the  supremacy  of  the 
law  of  self-interest,  you  will  destroy  private  enterprise.  No 
person  will  work  when  all  get  the  benefit  of  his  labor." 
Among  ignorant  and  unenlightened  people  this  is  true ;  but 
to-day  it  is  not  so.  We  know  better.  Individualism  is  the 
best  philosophy  when  we  are  too  ignorant  and  too  immoral 
to  cooperate;  for  it  is  better  that  the  individual,  through 
private  enterprise,  should  save  the  wealth  of  the  race  than 
that  it  be  wasted  in  the  blind  expenditure  of  energy,  as  in 
physical  nature.  But  when  we  have  reached  that  degree  of 
intelligence  and  morality  whereat  we  can  cooperate,  then 
individualism  should  be  abandoned;  and  it  is  being  aban- 
doned today  for  conscious  cooperation,  only  our  selfishness 
will  not  let  us  see  it.  The  facts  are,  we  produce  for  all  now 
as  much  as  we  ever  will ;  but  our  cooperation  is  blind,  in- 
stinctive, instead  of  conscious  and  voluntary,  besides,  owing 
to  our  imperfect  society,  each  individual  tries  to  control  what 
he  produces  independent  of  the  rest,  and  as  a  result  we  waste 
nearly  all  we  produce  in  opposition  and  competition.  Life 
is  one  interminable  struggle  for  physical  existence. 

Blind  conservatism,  self-interest,  private  enterprise,  indi- 
vidualism has  done  much  for  the  human  race.  To  self- 
interest  can  be  traced  the  origination  of  property,  marriage 


FORESTALLING  CRITICISM  423 

to  perpetuate  it,  and  the  invention  and  perfection  of  onr 
wonderful  system  of  money;  but  it  was  powerful  simply 
because  society  was  pursuing  social  development  through 
individualism,  and  now  that  we  have  reached  a  degree  of 
morality,  a  degree  of  intelligence  sufficient  to  adopt  social 
methods  directly,  methods  as  much  superior  to  individual- 
ism as  individualism  is  superior  to  the  expenditure  of  energy 
by  the  third  law  of  motion  in  physical  nature,  are  we  still  to 
follow  the  eternal  conflict  in  the  expenditure  of  our  energies 
under  individualism  when  we  have  at  hand  the  perfect 
economy  of  morality  and  sociality?  Xature  has  always 
effected  these  transitions;  as,  for  example,  the  expenditure 
of  energy  in  nature  without  any  economy  to  the  expenditure 
of  energy  according  to  the  intellect  with  economy  controlled 
by  the  self-interest  of  the  individual;  and  it  will  effect  the 
change  from  individualism  to  that  of  the  socialization  of  the 
race  in  spite  of  all  opposition,  simply  because  it  is  the  nature 
of  energy  to  take  the  line  of  the  least  resistance,  and  the 
expenditure  of  energy  by  morality  and  intelligence  sustained 
by  religion  is  infinitely  more  economical  than  the  expendi- 
ture of  energy  by  the  blind  struggle  for  existence  and  sus- 
tained by  selfishness. 

The  social  organism  will  not  rob  the  animal  organism  of 
any  of  its  pleasures,  but  give  it  additional  ones.  What 
difference  does  it  make  to  the  individual  how  he  comes  by  a 
great  life — all  the  thought  there  is,  all  the  feeling  there  is — 
so  he  experiences  it?  The  conflict  touched  upon  here  is  one 
of  the  deepest  in  civilization;  it  is  the  conflict  of  the  regis- 
tered energies  of  nature  in  preserving  the  organism  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  registered  energies  of  society  in  perfecting 
society;  or,  differently  put,  the  instinct  of  self-preservation 
through  the  intellect  in  opposition  to  the  instinct  of  religion 
in  the  perfection  of  society  through  the  social  sense.  This 
is  the  truth  in  the  dogma  in  saving  one's  soul  by  losing  it; 
for  the  individual's  giving  up,  surrendering  to  society,  is  the 


424        THE  SOCIALIZATION    OF  HUMANITY 

act  of  religious  conversion  which  ends  in  regeneration  of 
the  whole  of  society. 

The  individual's  conduct  in  relation  to  society  to-day  is 
similar  to  that  of  a  spoiled  child  which  persists  in  its  own 
wilfulness  regardless  of  the  numerous  hardships  it  is  made 
to  suffer  by  it.  Man  seems  rather  to  prefer  freedom  and 
misery  than  social  control  and  happiness.  The  individual, 
owing  to  lack  of  religion,  seems  willing  to  suffer  any  hard- 
ship so  he  is  not  compelled  to  trust  to  society  for  any  control 
regulating  his  means  of  subsistence.  The  individual  indeed 
dies  hard,  and  society  is  long-suffering;  but  if  the  individual 
does  not  pass  under  the  yoke  of  society,  take  up  his  cross  in 
the  Christian  sense  of  that  word  and  bear  it,  he  will  never 
reach  the  acme  of  individuality;  for  it  is  by  social  control 
that  all  the  energies  of  the  individual  can  be  conserved  and 
utilized,  and  by  social  control  alone. 

To  demand  institutions  instanter  whereby  to  regulate 
society  is  like  demanding  a  machine  before  the  energy  it  is 
to  control  is  known.  If  knowledge  were  uniformly  dis- 
tributed throughout  society,  it  would  soon  realize  itself  in 
institutions  which  would  control  and  direct  the  energies  of 
the  individual  as  the  individual  controls  and  directs  the 
energies  of  nature.  When  the  race  knows  what  is  wrong 
with  it,  when  it  sees  that  it  can  never  reach  perfection 
or  happiness  under  our  theological  social  sense,  it  will 
soon  set  itself  aright.  But  to  ask  the  end  (institutions) 
before  the  means  (knowledge)  is  like  asking  for  bricks  and 
furnishing  no  straw.  The  point  of  view  is  the  main  thing, 
and  that  is  what  we  are  contending  for.  The  institutions  of 
the  future  society  will  be  developed  by  art  before  being  pro- 
duced by  science.  New  institutions  are  developing  every 
day  had  we  the  acumen  to  see  them.  Just  as  the  French 
rulers,  before  the  French  Revolution  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, were  absolutely  incapable  of  seeing  the  growth  of 
democracy,  which  culminated  in  the  Revolution,  so  are  we 


FORESTALLING  CRITICISM  425 

to-day  unable  to  see  the  nascent  institutions  that  will  result 
in  the  democratization  and  socialization  of  the  race  in  the 
coming  future.  The  institution  of  all  others  to-day  that  is 
a  product  of  the  scientific  social  sense  is  the  school,  begin- 
ning with  the  kindergarten,  passing  to  the  common  school, 
and  ending  in  state  and  national  universities.  But  the 
public  press  is  no  less  the  product  of  the  scientific  social 
sense,  to  say  nothing  of  the  other  social  institutions  too 
incipient  for  us  to  do  more  than  mention,  such  as  the  theater, 
fine  art  and  music,  that  will  be  powers  when  fully  developed. 
The  socialization  of  the  race  has  begun.  We  are  writing 
about  something  that  is  in  existence  when  we  speak  of  the 
social  organism. 

The  functions  of  state  are  widening.  As  the  functions  of 
the  church  become  inoperative,  the  state  assumes  them. 
Most  of  the  education  of  to-day  is  performed  by  the  state. 
Witness  the  great  educational  reform  going  on  in  France 
to-day.  It  is  one  of  the  greatest  examples  of  moral  courage 
ever  displayed  by  any  nation,  and  one  which  will  be  followed 
by  the  whole  world.  Education  would  be  the  legitimate 
function  of  the  church  if  it  were  based  on  knowledge  instead 
of  dogmas,  or  if  its  allegory  were  universally  believed  in,  as 
it  was  in  the  Dark  Ages.  But  to-day  education  has  passed 
forever  from  its  control.  Whether  the  church  itself  shall 
pass  away  and  the  state  once  more  take  on  the  double  func- 
tion of  religion  and  politics,  as  with  primitive  man,  depends 
whether  the  new  truth  of  science  will  be  permitted  to  take  the 
place  of  the  old  dogmas.  If  the  church  continues  to  fail,  as 
it  has  failed  for  the  last  three  centuries,  then  the  school 
will  be  the  sacred  institution  of  socialized  man. 

Nature  is  not  choice  in  its  means,  and  when  the  church 
could  not  develop  an  oriented  moral  and  social  sense,  the 
church  and  state  separated,  and  the  state  began  performing 
the  function  really  peculiar  to  the  church  alone,  that  of 
education.  Such  is  the  roundabout  way  of  evolution  when 


426        THE  SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

following  the  blind  dissipation  of  energy  as  seen  in  nature, 
individualism,  and  unconscious  society. 

II 

The  contest  for  supremacy  in  Western  civilization  to-day 
is  betweer  private  and  public  corporations ;  between  the  indi- 
vidual and  classes  on  the  one  hand  and  the  social  organism 
on  the  other ;  and  in  this  conflict  Western  civilization  may  go 
to  pieces,  as  the  social  organisms  of  history  have  disappeared 
in  the  past;  if  so,  another  Dark  Ages  may  follow.  Prog- 
ress in  the  human  race  has  been  in  waves  of  hundreds  of 
years  from  crest  to  crest ;  but  the  trough  of  each  wave  is 
higher  than  the  preceding  one.  The  stream  of  humanity 
flows  up,  not  down.  If  the  race  does  not  succeed  in  having 
society  by  public  corporate  knowledge  this  time,  it  may  the 
next  time  it  develops  a  grand  civilization,  which  will  follow 
the  retrogression  that  may  set  in  if  society  by  corporate 
knowledge  be  not  adopted  in  the  present  conflict  as  to  how 
society  shall  be  governed.  When  we  remember  that  the 
present  stability  depends  solely  upon  the  people  not  knowing 
the  injury  that  is  done  them,  then  that  justice  be  done  them 
is  imperative,  or  else  the  conflict  may  break  out  in  disastrous 
revolution. 

The  social  organism,  in  organization  now,  is  like  a  pro- 
tozoan. Whenever  the  energies  of  the  organism  as  a  whole 
cannot  be  controlled  by  the  organism,  there  is  a  disruption 
and  new  organisms  are  formed,  and  a  trial  at  producing  a 
general  organism  that  can  control  the  internal  energies  to 
adjust  it  to  external  energies  is  begun  again.  This  is  the 
social  organism's  reproduction.  Or  society  may  throw  off 
organisms  as  colonies,  migrations  of  humanity  seen  in  all 
ages  of  humanity,  each  new  organism  being  an  attempt  at 
improvement  upon  the  old.  The  resulting  societies,  no 
matter  how  reproduced,  end  either  in  a  higher  and  stronger 
organization  or  in  extinction.  History  is  replete  with  such 


FORESTALLING  CRITICISM  427 

social  phenomena  as  this ;  one  of  the  most  recent  cases  being 
the  secession  of  the  United  States  from  Great  Britain.  The 
result  of  our  late  Civil  War  gives  us  hope  to  believe  that  the 
general  government  of  the  United  States  is  sufficiently  strong 
to  resist  all  internal  attacks  of  anti-social  energies,  and  also 
sufficiently  strong  to  direct  the  energies  of  all  of  its  indi- 
viduals to  the  betterment  of  the  United  States  as  a  whole. , 
The  human  race  to-day  is  the  result  of  the  conflict  of  indi- 
vidual and  class  energies  with  social  energies,  it  having  suf- 
fered innumerable  revolutions  during  its  long  life,  and  Western 
civilization  is  now  in  the  midst  of  the  throes  of  another 
great  conflict  which  will  end  either  in  a  social  organism  that 
will  be  able  to  adjust  the  race  as  a  whole  to  its  habitat  or 
produce  one  that  will  succeed  in  doing  so.  Society  is  a 
phoenix.  Or,  in  literal  language,  the  social  organism  is  an 
amorphous  body  which  may  exist  as  a  single  nation  or  as 
several  interdependent  nations.  One  social  organism  may 
coalesce  with  another  or  separate  into  two  or  more  parts  by 
division,  each  part  becoming  a  social  organism  in  itself;  or  a 
social  organism  may  arise  out  of  the  dismembered  parts  of 
an  extinct  social  organization,  as  the  nations  of  southern 
Europe  rose  out  of  the  remains  of  the  Roman  Empire.  It  is 
impossible  for  disparate  social  organisms  to  ally.  They  exter- 
minate each  other,  as  Occident  and  Orient,  savage  and  civil- 
ized. By  social  organism  coalescing  with  social  organism, 
by  becoming  economically  dependent  upon  one  another,  or 
by  spreading  its  ideas  over  all  the  world  as  America  is  doing 
to-day,  in  the  end  the  social  organism  will  combine  the 
entire  human  race  in  one  organism  which  will  be  sufficiently 
strong  to  direct  its  internal  energies  so  as  to  adjust  itself  to 
external  energies  in  the  environment,  and  thus  realize  a 
moving  equilibrium  of  the  entire  race  and  expend  all  energy 
in  the  most  economic  manner  possible.  This  will  be  the 
socialization  of  humanity. 

A  general  fear  that  the  social  organism  cannot  be  run  by 


428        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

verifiable,  public  corporate  knowledge  and  institutions 
based  upon  it  is  just  as  groundless  as  would  be  the  fear  that 
the  animal  organism  could  not  be  run  by  ideas  as  well  as  by 
instinct.  The  fear  that  every  person  will  not  be  provided 
for  under  conscious  society  is  perfectly  groundless;  because 
society  by  public  corporate  knowledge  means  the  greatest 
economy,  the  greatest  happiness  to  the  greatest  number; 
whereas  society,  by  feeling,  by  instinct,  by  individuals,  cor- 
porations and  classes,  as  we  have  it  to-day,  means  the  great- 
est waste,  the  greatest  conflict,  the  greatest  injustice,  the 
greatest  unhappiness. 

The  fear  that  conscious  society  will  be  a  form  of  civiliza- 
tion in  which  the  individual  will  be  bereft  of  all  liberty  is 
exactly  opposite  to  the  truth.  Social  control  will  guarantee 
to  the  individual  the  complete  development  of  his  individual 
nature,  and,  in  addition,  will  cause  him  to  derive  as  much 
happiness  from  his  social  nature  as  he  now  realizes  from  his 
individual  nature.  Society  will  be  as  responsible  to  the  indi- 
vidual as  the  individual  is  to  society,  and  the  liberty  of  all 
will  be  the  liberty  of  each,  and  the  right  of  all  will  be  the 
right  of  each.  The  highest  function  of  society  is  to  perfect 
the  individual,  as  the  highest  function  of  the  individual  is  to 
perfect  society.  The  coordination  and  cooperation  of  society 
and  the  individual  will  be  perfect ;  their  relations  will  be 
reciprocal  in  responsibility  and  in  function.  The  sover- 
eignty heretofore  existing  in  the  king  will  be  distributed  to 
the  race  as  a  whole ;  and  when  the  race  is  controlled  by  a 
scientific  moral  and  social  sense  and  religion  is  based  upon 
morality,  then  the  most  intelligent  of  the  race  will  run  the 
race  for  the  benefit  of  all  and  be  compensated  therefor  not 
by  self-aggrandizement,  but  by  the  ecstasy  of  religion.  The 
great  motor  of  all  social  service  will  be  religion.  Religion, 
the  ego  of  society,  alone  can  counteract  selfishness,  the  ego 
of  the  individual. 

The  scientific  social  sense  will  destroy  and  take  the  place 


FORESTALLIXG  CRITICISM  429 

of  our  theological  social  sense  with  its  belief  in  an  imaginary 
God  and  the  dream-life  of  immortality;  but  instead  of 
destroying  religion,  the  instinct  to  protect,  perpetuate  and 
perfect  the  race,  will  put  it  on  its  true  basis,  morality, 
and  make  religion  the  greatest  source  of  happiness  the  indi- 
vidual is  capable  of. 

A  century  from  now  the  anomaly  of  our  age,  which  the 
historian  will  note  most  fully,  will  be  the  absence  of  all  true 
religion.  While  we  all  go  to  church  and  pay  our  respects  to 
Christianity,  yet  when  it  comes  to  every-day  conduct,  we  are 
hypocritical  infidels  in  all  we  do.  Each  nation  is  vying  to 
outdo  its  neighbor  in  selfishness,  duplicity  and  immorality, 
and  maintains  a  navy  and  an  army  to  fight,  if  need  be,  to 
extinction.  A  proposal  of  a  universal  disarmament  is  met 
with  alarm  by  all,  for  no  nation  keeps  its  word  with  another 
only  so  long  as  it  is  profitable ;  yet  this  universal  immorality 
is  practiced  by  all  nations  believing  in  the  Fatherhood  of 
God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man.  "We  beliove  nothing. 
We  are  ignorant.  We  act  blindly  as  individuals.  We  live 
by  instinct.  The  orientation  of  the  race  will  put  an  end  to 
all  this  anarchy.  The  social  sense  will  teach  man  how  his 
energies  should  be  expended  so  that  they  will  all  be  conserved, 
one  nation  supplementing  another,  rendering  service  to 
another,  the  whole  race  living  in  mutual  economical  depend- 
ence. The  first  nation  which  adopts  the  expenditure  of 
energy  by  public  corporate  knowledge  will  surpass  all  others, 
let  it  be  monarchic  Russia  or  democratic  America;  and  the 
other  nations  of  the  earth  will  speedily  follow,  or  else  fall 
behind  the  van  of  civilization  from  lack  of  cooperation. 
This  is  no  theory,  but  a  fact.  See  how  the  organization  of 
trusts  is  spreading  over  all  the  world.  This  is  expenditure 
of  energy  by  private  corporate  knowledge.  The  expenditure 
of  energy  by  public  corporate  knowledge  completes  the  evo- 
lution, being  another  example  of  nature  not  being  choice  in 
its  means,  accomplishing  by  private  corporations,  indirectly 


430       THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF   HUMANITY 

at  first,  what  it  could  not  do  by  public  corporations  directly 
until  to-day. 

Instead  of  agnosticism,  atheism,  materialism  and  infidelity 
being  sacrilegious  and  blasphemous,  they  are  the  cause  of 
the  lecognition  of  true  religion.  It  is  not  only  absurd  to 
worship  an  imaginary  God,  but  it  is  wicked;  for  by  doing  so 
one  adopts  a  falsa  moral  and  social  sense  which  ends  in 
immorality  and  waste  of  human  energy.  God  worship  is 
the  last  altar  of  idolatry,  and  belief  in  immortal  life  is  akin 
to  belief  in  witchcraft,  spiritualism,  possession  of  devils  and 
ghosts.  The  function  of  our  senses  and  intellect  is  to 
enable  us  to  live  this  life;  the  function  of  the  moral  and 
social  senses  is  to  make  life  worth  the  living.  We  have  no 
senses,  no  intellect,  no  faculty  to  enable  us  to  know  how  to 
live  another  life,  and  it  is  impossible  to  develop  them  in  this 
life.  Of  necessity  each  life  must  suffice  for  itself.  Heaven 
and  hell  are  not  an  extension  of  this  life,  but  totally  differ- 
ent places.  The  laws  of  natural  selection  and  repetition 
cannot  possibly  fit  or  unfit  one  for  either  place  from  any 
experience  one  can  have  here.  If  there  is  another  life,  noth- 
ing but  experience  in  it  could  ever  adjust  us  to  it,  not  expe- 
rience here  on  earth.  Immortality  was  conceived  by  a  mind 
that  knew  nothing  about  the  laws  of  mortality,  his  concep- 
tion of  the  facts  of  mortality  being  as  wide  of  the  mark  as 
his  dream  of  immortality;  both  being  perfectly  imaginary. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  concept  of  God.  Primitive  man  saw 
facts  only  allegorically,  and,  considered  in  this  light,  immor- 
tality is  the  life  of  the  race,  and  humanity  is  the  correlate  to 
man,  not  God. 

Eeligion  severed  from  morality  is  superstition,  racial 
suicide.  What  made  the  Hebrew  theology  survive  in  the 
struggle  for  existence  between  theology  and  theology  was 
that  six  of  the  ten  commandments  are  moral ;  and  what  made 
Christianity  surpass  Paganism  in  Western  civilization  was 
that  the  Golden  Rule,  the  suppression  of  selfishness,  its  fun- 


FORESTALLING  CRITICISM  431 

damental  doctrine,  is  purely  moral.  The  Doukhobors  to-day 
are  an  example  of  religion  severed  from  morality.  Catholi- 
cism in  the  Dark  Ages  is  another.  The  hypocrisy  of  to-day 
is  certainly  better  than  religion  based  on  faith  instead  of 
works.  The  old-fashioned  infidel  is  right,  if  religion  cannot 
be  based  on  morality,  and  morality  on  knowledge,  then  relig- 
ion should  become  extinct,  and  is  indeed  an  aberration  of 
the  race  that  will  end  in  death  and  destruction.  But  such 
is  not  the  case.  Just  as  love  wrongly  expended  is  lust;  so 
religion  wrongly  expended  is  superstition.  Each,  when 
rightly  expended,  is  pure,  noble,  sublime — love  the  instinct 
that  perpetuates  the  individual ;  religion  the  instinct  that 
perpetuates,  protects  and  perfects  the  race. 

The  fear  that  the  social  sense  will  do  away  with  or  destroy 
the  moral  sense  is  just  as  groundless  as  would  be  the  fear  of 
a  protozoan  should  it  fear  that  if  it  developed  a  sense  of  sight 
it  would  destroy  its  sense  of  touch;  for  the  social  sense 
is  a 'sense  of  sight  to  the  moral  sense.  The  social  sense  in 
the  coming  society,  instead  of  opposing  the  moral  sense,  will 
perfect  it  by  pointing  out  to  it  many  ways  of  expending 
energy  that  are  hurtful  which  now  seem  to  be  beneficial,  and 
vice  versa.  Just  as  sight  shows  distant  evils  to  the  animal 
organism,  so  knowledge  shows  distant  evils  to  the  social 
organism.  To  use  the  social  sense  to  assist  the  moral  sense 
will  under  no  circumstances  weaken  it,  but  always  strengthen 
it;  as  sight  makes  touch  more  effective. 

If  the 'moral  sense  were  perfect  without  the  social  sense, 
the  social  organism  could  reach  no  higher  perfection  than 
that  of  an  animal  devoid  of  all  the  senses  but  touch.  The 
moral  sense  is  blind  feeling.  An  ignorant  man,  no  matter 
how  good  he  may  be,  is  certain  to  do  some  wrong.  The 
founders  of  the  Inquisition,  judged  by  the  standards  of 
morality  of  their  age,  were  good  persons,  but  ignorant  and 
bigoted.  Much  of  the  real  immorality  and  uusociability  of 
man  is  backed  by  the  best  motives  in  the  human  heart. 


432        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

Misdirected  parental  affection  has  ruined  many  a  child. 
Keligion  coupled  with  ignorance  and  error  ends  in  fanaticism 
and  bigotry.  There  is  no  more  surety  that  a  good  energy 
unguided  will  expend  itself  aright  than  that  an  animal  with- 
out eyes  will  find  its  way.  Each  may  succeed  after  innumer- 
able trials ;  but  think  of  the  waste  of  energy !  The  hope  of 
the  future  of  the  race  lies  in  the  mutual  development  of  the 
moral  and  social  senses  and  the  generation  of  true  religion 
by  putting  their  teachings  into  practice  in  every  day  life. 
All  of  this  is  but  another  illustration  of  the  fact  that  it  is  not 
the  purification  of  energy  that  is  demanded,  but  its  con- 
scious direction  in  expenditure.  Good  and  bad  are  purely 
relative  terms  in  the  expenditure  of  energy  and  the 
same  energy  that  is  bad  with  proper  expenditure 
would  have  been  good,  and  vice  versa.  Nature,  life, 
mind  and  society  are  problems  in  the  expenditure  of  energy ; 
that  is  all  there  is  to  it.  And  civilization  is  civilization 
because  under  it  man's  energies  are  expended  more  economi- 
cally than  under  barbarism;  and  socialization  will  be  social- 
ization because  under  it  all  human  energy  will  be  expended 
in  the  most  economical  manner  possible. 

Ill 

Eeligion  is  an  emotion  resulting  from  the  performance  of 
certain  acts  which  either  directly  or  indirectly  are  conducive 
to  collective  human  welfare.  Often  the  result  is  purely 
unconscious.  The  acts  are  instinctive.  Eeligion  originated 
in  the  clan.  It  grew  out  of  love  of  kind.  Its  first  observ- 
ances were  made  to  ward  off  the  evils  of  the  environment  to 
the  clan,  which  was  the  primitive  form  of  the  family.  In 
phallism  religion  hallowed  the  reproductive  act,  so  that  it 
lingers  yet  in  the  sacredness  of  marriage.  Later,  religion 
worshipped  an  ancestor  and  treasured  the  tribal  organization 
he  left.  From  the  clan  grew  the  family  in  the  modern 
sense  of  the  word.  Eeligion  became  the  instinct  that  pro- 


FORESTALLING  CRITICISM  433 

tected  the  clan,  the  family,  the  tribe,  the  nation,  and  ulti- 
mately will  protect  the  whole  race.  Religion  has  always 
bound  man  to  man.  It  is  the  instinct  of  social  preservation. 
It  is  the  instinct  that  binds  the  species  together  throughout 
the  entire  animal  kingdom.  It  is  purely  blind,  but  always 
works  to  social  benefit.  To-day  religion  means  almost  any- 
thing, and  while  few  of  the  enlightened,  if  any,  believe  in 
the  Christian  religion,*  yet  if  any  of  the  great  nations  were 
to  offer  to  abolish  it,  and  not  put  in  its  place  true  religion, 
it  would  send  a  shock  through  civilization  that  would 
paralyze  humanity.  This  is  why  it  is  that  the  infidelity  of 
Voltaire,  Paine  and  Ingersoll  has  had  so  little  effect  upon  the 
race.  The  one  question:  "If  you  take  away  my  religion 
from  me,  what  are  you  going  to  give  me  in  its  stead?"  has 
dumfounded  all  the  old-fashioned  infidels.  We  may  not 
believe  in  Christianity,  but  we  do  believe  in  religion ;  and  so 
long  as  Christianity  stands  for  religion,  one  dare  not  offer  to 
destroy  it,  or  one  will  be  anathematized,  not  only  by  the 
church,  but  by  the  mass  of  enlightened  humanity  who  are 
not  Christians  at  all.  Hence  the  necessity  of  substituting 
real  religion  for  our  hypocritical  Christianity,  which,  like  the 
dog  in  the  manger,  neither  protects,  perpetuates  or  perfects 
humanity  nor  lets  science  do  it. 

Christianity  has  so  perverted  religion  that  most  persons 
think  to  be  religious  means  to  be  unhappy,  to  deny  one's 
self  the  pleasures  of  life,  when  in  fact  the  ultimate  function 
of  religion  is  to  realize  in  the  individual  the  fullness  of  life, 
the  perfection  of  life,  the  greatest  happiness  to  the  greatest 
number,  to  make  of  earth  a  veritable  heaven.  The  world 
has  changed  the  content  of  its  concept  of  religion  many 
times,  and  has  not  deteriorated  by  it;  and  it  will  make  the 

*  The  bitterness  manifested  against  Spinoza  and  Hobbes  and  Tom  Paine  and 
other  "infidels"  was  due  probably  in  great  part  to  the  fact  that  no  small  por- 
tion of  the  declarations  of  these  men  was  truth  and  could  not  be  gainsaid. 
Men  usually  feel  good-natured  towards  opponents  whom  they  have  whipped. 
But  the  apologetic  of  those  times  could  not  answer  completely  the  arguments 
of  the  "infidels";  and  consequently  what  refutation  could  not  compass,  invect- 
ive was  expected  to  accomplish.— The  Higher  Criticism,  QBO.  W.  GIL.MOBB. 


434      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

change  again  without  hurt,  so  be  not  afraid  to  accept  true 
religion,  which  will  ultimately  socialize  the  race. 

If  Christianity  is  not  the  ultimate  form  of  religion,  there 
is  no  reason  why  the  oriented  should  not  boldly  proclaim  it. 
In  going  any  place,  if  it  is  found  that  the  accepted  route  is 
longer  than  a  newly  discovered  one,  what  person  would 
persist  in  taking  the  old  way?  Who  travels  by  stage  now 
that  we  have  the  locomotive?  Thus,  in  every  line,  when  a 
more  economic  method  of  expending  energy  is  found,  the  old 
form  is  discarded.  It  will  be  so  of  religion;  but  all  that  is 
good,  true  and  useful  in  Christianity  will  be  preserved,  as 
the  good  in  all  other  religions  has  been,  and  the  bad  will  be 
abandoned  in  spite  of  interested  followers  and  the  inertia  of 
antiquated  practice.  Nothing  is  truer  than  that,  no  matter 
what  the  intellectual  development  of  the  race,  religion  will 
always  be  with  man  to  bless  him,  to  protect  him,  to  perfect 
him. 

No  doubt  the  time  was  when  the  sexual  act  with  man  was 
purely  blind,  instinctive,  as  it  is  with  animals  to-day.  Love 
is  so  now.  Few  persons  seem  to  know  what  the  birth  of 
love  means ;  but  it  always  tends  to  the  same  ending.  The 
biologic  function  of  love  is  acknowledged  by  many.  It  is 
upon  the  point  of  being  taught  in  our  colleges.  Stories  will 
be  written  about  it  within  the  next  few  years.  Have  not  Guy 
de  Maupassant,  Hardy  and  Tolstoi  already  attempted  it? 

As  love  to  man  was  once  a  blind  unintelligible  instinct,  so 
is  religion  to-day.  The  means  of  grace,  the  ceremonies  of 
religion,  the  beliefs,  the  superstitions,  the  theology — all 
tend  to  bind  man  to  man  and  thus  blindly  to  organize 
society.  "Worship  is  the  courtship  of  religion,  and  performs 
its  function  as  blindly  as  the  courtship  of  love  with  its 
coquetry,  indifference,  independence,  surrender,  trust, 
happiness.  But  science  studies  the  blind  emotion  of  relig- 
ion and  devises  a  system  of  living  institutions  to  effect  con- 
sciously the  same  purpose,  producing  the  same  religious  emo- 


FORESTALLING  CRITICISM  435 

tion,  as  love,  based  on  biology  to-day,  is  just  as  sweet  as  love 
based  on  the  romance  of  the  mythology  of  yesterday.  Relig- 
ion can  be  based  on  verifiable  knowledge  the  same  as  it  is  now 
based  on  tradition,  for  whatever  belief  binds  man  to  man 
will  produce  it ;  and  as  nothing  can  compass  the  race  and 
unify  it  for  all  time  but  the  truth,  the  truth  alone  is  able  to 
bind  the  whole  race  together  in  one  organism,  and  produce  a 
religion  that  will  be  world-wide  and  race-deep.  Religion 
can  be  produced  by  institutions  based  on  knowledge  the  same 
as  if  they  had  grown  up  unconsciously;  as  love  is  just  as 
sacred  when  regulated  by  a  marriage  system  consciously 
devised  by  statute  law,  as  when  by  custom  handed  down 
from  time  immemorial.  Many  institutions  that  were  orig- 
inally religious,  for  example,  the  theater,  are  not  considered 
so  now  at  all,  and  others,  the  school,  for  example,  are 
destined  to  become  so.  Many  pursuits  thought  not  to  be 
religious  at  all,  produce  an  emotion  generically  identical 
with  religion,  for  example,  the  glory  of  war,  the  enthusiasm 
of  politics — each  party  is  saving  the  country — the  ecstasy  of 
fame  in  science,  literature,  fine  art,  and  the  satisfaction 
resulting  from  honest  labor  of  any  kind.  But  it  takes  no 
deep  thought  to  see  the  kinship  of  these  emotions  to  relig- 
ion, when  it  is  known  to  be  the  instinct  to  protect,  perpetu- 
ate and  perfect  the  race.  All  man's  emotions  can  be 
consciously  generated.  Just  as  we  can  consciously  generate 
love  by  associating  with  one  of  the  opposite  sex,  so  can  we 
generate  religion  by  doing  those  acts  that  engender  it.  To 
do  a  kind  act,  an  intelligent  act,  a  useful  act,  a  beautiful 
act,  always  produces  the  emotion  of  religion,  no  matter 
what  we  call  it.  Life  can  be  lived  consciously  by  society  the 
same  as  it  can  be  lived  consciously  by  the  individual.  Such 
a  life  will  be  fully  realized  by  our  posterity  in  the  future. 

Religion,  to  be  religion  in  the  highest  sense  of  that  great 
word,  must  be  an  emotion  that  will  make  the  solidarity  of 
the  race  perfect,  and  must  result  from  morality  based  on 


436        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

verifiable  knowledge.  "Religion  based  on  superstition  is  a 
menace  to  racial  progress,  racial  perpetuity,  and  is  destined 
to  be  supplanted  by  the  religion  of  morality.  So  the  fear  of 
the  Catholic  church  is  well  founded.  Its  greatest  foe  is 
science.  But  true  religion,  based  on  morality,  right  living, 
controlled  by  science,  is  destined  to  live  as  long  as  humanity 
graces  the  earth  with  its  presence. 

It  has  been  argued  that  knowledge  only  makes  the  crim- 
inal more  criminal.  Knowledge  may  originate  institutions 
which,  like  any  other  machine  (for  an  institution  is  only  a 
psychical  machine),  sometimes  misdirects  energy,  and  the 
wrong  it  does  is  in  proportion  to  the  power  of  the  energy  it 
attempts  to  control ;  but  because  the  boilers  of  a  locomotive 
explode  and  kill  many  is  no  reason  we  should  not  use  phys- 
ical machinery,  nor  should  the  misuse  of  the  school,  teach- 
ing a  lot  of  rubbish  that  leads  to  crime  instead  of  morality, 
condemn  all  forms  of  education.  The  misuse  of  knowledge 
is  an  accident  in  the  conduction  of  human  energy  that  argues 
no  more  against  conscious  conduction  of  human  energy  than 
an  accident  in  the  conduction  of  physical  energy  argues 
against  its  conduction.  And  humanity  shows  its  sanity  by 
not  paying  any  attention  to  either  of  these  arguments.  Mis- 
takes in  the  expenditure  of  human  energy  on  account  of 
imperfect  knowledge  only  show  that  knowledge  as  a  method 
of  directing  human  energy  is  yet  imperfect;  but  experience 
in  the  expenditure  of  human  energy  under  the  control  of 
knowledge  is  no  more  disastrous  than  the  control  of  the 
physical  energies  of  nature ;  and  both  are  destined  to  become 
more  and  more  perfect  as  humanity  develops,  until  the  per- 
fect day,  when  all  energy  will  be  expended  with  the  greatest 
possible  economy.  The  remedy  is  not  less  knowledge,  but 
more.  "What  are  called  crimes,  sins,  vices  are  but  igno- 
rantly  expended  human  energy,  energy  guided  by  the  indi- 
vidual's nature  in  opposition  to  the  moral  and  social  senses, 
his  social  nature. 


FORESTALLING  CRITICISM  437 

Knowledge,  instead  of  causing  crime,  is  the  only  possible 
way  to  tell  what  crime  is,  and  thus  to  suppress  it.  It  is 
knowledge  that  the  whole  world  needs  to-day;  knowledge 
that  will  point  out  the  way  that  all  human  energy  should  be 
expended ;  then  the  race  will  speedily  reach  perfect  adapta- 
tion to  the  environment,  and  man  perfect  adaptation  to  the 
social  organism. 

Our  penitentiaries  should  be  turned  into  manual  training 
schools  and  asylums.  Convicts  should  be  taught  how  to 
expend  their  energies  so  that  they  can  live  a  civilized  life. 
Their  natures  should  be  developed  and  balanced.  If  this 
cannot  be  done,  then  a  world  of  their  own  should  be  pro- 
vided for  them.  They  should  not  be  allowed  to  perpetuate 
their  kind,  and  the  social  conditions  producing  criminality, 
disease  and  degeneracy  should  be  done  away  with  by  social 
control.  Criminality  is  usually  produced  through  the  aban- 
donment of  the  individual  by  the  race.  It  is  the  duty  of  the 
race  to  develop  the  moral  sense  in  every  one  by  reward  and 
punishment,  to  develop  the  social  sense  by  education  and 
controlment.  To  love  persons  into  being  good  is  only  one 
side  of  the  moral  sense;  to  punish  them  justly,  judiciously 
and  severely  is  the  other.  But  no  matter  how  acute  the  moral 
sense  may  be,  if  the  social  sense  is  undeveloped,  the  life  of  the 
individual  will  be  imperfect,  and  if  the  individual  is  incom- 
petent to  understand  his  relation  to  society  and  society's 
relation  to  him,  he  should  be  especially  cared  for  by  society, 
being  denied  certain  rights  and  liberties,  and  being  relieved  of 
certain  duties  and  obligations — be  a  ward  instead  of  a  citizen. 

Poverty,  the  struggle  for  existence  and  war  are  due  to 
ignorantly  expended  human  energy.  As  every  normal  man 
may  be  drilled  into  being  a  soldier,  so  can  he  be  drilled  into 
being  a  citizen  and  educated  into  being  a  brother.  Citizens 
are  no  more  born  citizens  than  are  soldiers  born  soldiers. 
Each  is  a  product  of  his  respective  education.  What  would 
an  army  be  without  military  tactics?  A  mob.  It  is  con- 


438        THE  SOCIALIZATIOX   OF  HUMANITY 

trolled  by  feeling,  aiid  just  as  when  the  mob  controlled  bj 
military  tactics,  becomes  an  army,  and  is  an  organism ;  so 
society  when  controlled  by  public  corporate  knowledge  will  bo 
an  organism.  The  control  in  society  to-day  instead  of  being 
due  to  verifiable  knowledge  is  due  to  pseudo-knowledge 
inherited  from  an  ignorant  and  superstitious  past,  and  is 
almost  completely  unverifiable ;  and,  on  account  of  this,  often 
highly  intellectual  individuals  treat  society  with  disrespect, 
disobedience  and  contempt,  using  and  abusing  it  with 
impunity,  and,  as  a  result,  civilization  is  but  one  stage  above 
barbarism  instead  of  the  interdependent  and  cooperative  life 
possible  to  completely  oriented  human  beings. 

IV 

The  expenditure  of  human  energy  inimical  to  organized 
human  welfare  is  a  crime  no  matter  whether  it  is  an  act 
which  adroitly  uses  the  social  organization  for  individual  or 
class  purposes  or  an  act  of  individual  cunning,  violence  or 
blind  feeling.  This  conception  of  crime  is  intellectual,  not 
moral.  It  is  basing  crime  upon  knowledge,  not  blind  feel- 
ing. It  makes  no  difference  to  society  how  an  act  is  pro- 
duced, if  it  tends  to  destroy  social  organization,  or  if  it 
prevents  social  organization,  or  if  it  perverts  social  organiza- 
tion to  other  than  universal  welfare,  it  is  a  crime ;  and,  while 
owing  to  the  imperfections  of  the  moral  sense,  it  is  not  felt 
to  be  a  crime  to-day,  yet  if  it  is  seen  to  be  one  by  the  social 
sense,  that  constitutes  it  a  crime.  Those  actions  which 
'tend  to  destroy  society  are  called  crimes,  not  so  much 
j  because  man  consciously  knows  them  to  be  inimical  to  the 
race,  but  because  in  the  long  history  of  the  race,  that  tribe 
or  nation  which  punished  such  actions  survived  and  perpetu- 
ated itself,  and  those  that  did  not  perished ;  and  it  is  the 
dread  of  this  unconscious  social  disaster  that  puts  in  us  our 
instinctive  horror  against  such  crimes  as  theft,  adultery, 
treason,  murder.  Crime  is  still  an  instinct.  In  the  future 


FORESTALLING  C1UTICLSM  439 

there  will  be  many  now  crimes,  not  instinctive,  but  con- 
scious, when  the  true  method  of  expending  human  energy 
will  have  been  discovered. 

To-day  ingenious  individuals  and  classes  accomplish 
results  through  private  corporations  which  could  not  be 
realized  by  individuals.  To-day  there  are  many  private 
corporations  which  are  conspiracies  organized  and  legalized 
to  get  possession  adroitly  of  all  the  property  of  the  race  as 
soon  as  it  is  produced.  These  social  traitors  subsidize  the 
press,  corrupt  the  pulpit,  and  are  making  attempts  at  the 
control  of  higher  education,  and  thus  control  public  opin- 
ion. Any  one  denouncing  them  is  called  the  most  oppro- 
brious names.  He  is  surrounded  with  prejudice,  so  that 
those  he  is  working  for  become  his  enemies.  He  is  fortu- 
nate if  his  real  position  in  the  world  is  not  completely  per- 
verted and  if  he  go  not  down  to  posterity  as  a  traitor  instead 
of  a  benefactor.  If  there  is  the  shadow  of  a  tendency  on 
the  part  of  the  government  to  suppress  these  social  traitors 
they  make  the  direst  prediction  of  social  disaster  that  will 
result  by  their  destruction,  and  thus  go  scot  free,  and  are 
whitewashed  by  the  press  as  public  benefactors,  the  cause  of 
prosperity,  the  backbone  of  the  commonwealth,  and  so  forth. 

All  social  functions  should  be  controlled  by  society.  It 
cannot  be  otherwise  than  disastrous  to  any  people  to  allow 
its  finances  to  be  controlled  by  private  corporations,  or  to 
allow  private  corporations  to  control  taxation,  as  in  the  case 
of  tariff  taxation  in  the  United  States.  It  is  just  as  logical 
to  have  private  individuals  own  and  operate  the  public  high- 
ways, streets  and  sidewalks,  as  to  have  them  own  the  street 
railways  and  railroads  of  a  nation.  But  if  a  nation  has  not 
the  intelligence  and  morality  to  govern  itself,  society  is  not 
choice  and  accepts  individual  government.*  It  is  just  as 

*In  the  eye  of  the  law  railroads  are  modern  public  highways,  created  to  serve 
public  uses;  and  for  public  purposes  enjoy  privileges  and  franchises  which  par- 
take of  the  nature  of  sovereignty.— American  Law,  Vol.  II.,  Sec.  538,  John  I). 
Laicson. 


440       THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

much  a  crime  against  society  to  allow  speculators  to  raise 
and  lower  the  prices  of  stocks,  bonds,  farm  products,  and  all 
other  property,  and  thereby  acquire  unjust  title  to  the  pro- 
ducts of  the  nation,  as  it  is  for  a  highwayman  to  make  a 
passer-by  purchase  safety  by  standing  and  delivering  all  he 
has  at  the  point  of  the  weapon.  Wrongs  should  be  called 
by  their  right  names,  then  we  could  see  them,  feel  them  and 
right  them.  There  is  no  place  in  which  the  inadequacy  of 
Christianity  is  shown  more  conspicuously  than  in  its 
cowardly  upholding  of  the  horrors  of  capitalism. 

The  law  of  justice  in  society  is  that  service  should  be  ren- 
dered for  service.  Property  acquired  otherwise  is  robbery. 
When  we  have  a  moral  sense  so  acute  as  to  recognize  this 
law,  the  socialization  and  the  democratization  of  the  race 
will  be  assured ;  and  when  the  social  sense  points  the  way 
suitable  institutions  will  follow,  and  the  perfection  of  the 
race  will  have  been  accomplished.  Let  the  race  accept  this 
theory  of  things,  base  religion  on  morality,  and  morality  on 
knowledge,  then  the  perfection  of  humanity  will  be  only  a 
question  of  time. 

Heretofore  only  isolated  individuals,  reformers,  geniuses, 
martyrs  have  taken  society  to  task  for  its  lack  of  responsi- 
bility to  the  individual;  but  to-day  all  thinkers,  religious 
persons,  literary  people  are  demanding  that  society  beaiv  the 
brunt  of  being  particeps  criminis  in  the  crimes,  vices,  wrongs 
and  sins  of  the  individual,  and  of  the  poverty,  struggle  for 
existence  and  war  of  society  as  a  whole.  No  longer  can 
society  stand  idly  by  and  simply  punish  the  offender.  It  is 
society's  duty  to  help  him,  and  it  is  his  right  to  demand 
help.  No  longer  can  society  stand  by  and  demand  only  fair 
play  in  the  industrial  and  commercial  worlds ;  it  must  insure 
it.  What  is  government  for,  if  not  to  govern?  The  indi- 
vidual should  not  only  be  free  to  act,  but  he  should  be  fur- 
nished with  institutions,  when  he  makes  a  choice,  that  will 
not  betray  him,  but  will  realize  for  him  perfect  results. 


FORESTALLING  CRITICISM  441 

The  physical  evils  of  civilization  grow  out  of  the  unfair 
distribution  of  property.  If  analyzed,  it  will  be  found  that 
only  a  few  of  the  cormorant  corporations  that  live  off  the 
body  politic  are  producers.  Every  institution  to  protect  the 
producer  of  property,  to  insure  to  him  his  rightful  use  of  it, 
is  in  line  with  the  socialization  of  the  race.  Property  has 
been  of  such  great  importance  to  the  perfection  of  the  race 
that  society  as  a  whole  has  really  gained  by  the  growing  up  in 
it  of  a  privileged  class,  the  capitalistic,  which  did  not  work, 
but  simply  saved  what  the  workers  produced ;  but  this  class 
to-day  has  served  its  function,  and  should  give  way  to  pub- 
lic control  and  just  distribution. 

Looked  at  from  the  wide  point  of  view  of  humanity,  it  was 
better  for  the  race  as  a  whole  to  have  a  medium  of  exchange, 
money,  which  was  good  the  world  over,  let  it  be  made 
directly  in  the  interest  of  individuals,  than  that  society  as  a 
whole  have  many  kinds  of  money  but  none  of  it  legal  tender 
outside  of  its  own  national  bounds.  But  now  that  such  a 
money  is  developed,  society  should  take  charge  of  it,  control 
it,  perfect  it,  and  the  private  individuals  and  corporations 
who  have  originated  it,  should  become  public  servants.  The 
true  system  of  money  cannot  be  perfected  by  private  indi- 
viduals, because  it  is  inimical  to  their  best  interests.  The 
individual  has  done  all  he  can  do;  it  is  now  society's  duty  to 
perfect  money  by  regulating  its  quantity,  by  the  amount  of 
work  it  is  to  perform,  and  thereby  regulate  its  value. 
Money  should  be  the  representative  of  property,  and  in 
quantity  should  be  in  direct  proportion  to  the  amount  of 
property  in  the  world.  It  should  be  asset  money ;  but  it 
should  be  the  assets  of  the  whole  world,  not  of  some  partic- 
ular bank  or  systems  of  banks  and  financiers,  to  enable  them 
to  make  it  an  elastic  yard  stick  to  measure  long  for  them 
when  buying  and  short  for  them  when  selling.  Then  we 
will  have  a  money  that  will  increase  as  property  increases, 
and  decrease  as  property  decreases ;  be  perfectly  elastic,  not 


442        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

for  the  benefit  of  a  few,  but  for  the  benefit  of  all.  For 
money  as  a  measure  of  value  must  increase  as  the  thing  it 
measures  increases,  and  decrease  as  it  decreases ;  because  it 
is  all  the  money  that  measure^  all  the  property,  not  some 
given  unit.  The  standard  of  value  is  the  ratio  existing 
between  the  quantity  of  property  and  the  quantity  of  money, 
and  to  make  it  unchangeable,  always  of  the  same  value,  the 
ratio  must  be  constant  by  ever  increasing  and  decreasing 
the  amount  of  money  to  correspond  to  the  amount  of  prop- 
erty as  it  is  produced  and  consumed. 

The  final  condition  of  society,  as  seen  in  the  tendency  of 
things,  is  that  of  social  democracy.  The  only  possibility  of 
the  perfection  of  humanity  is  the  democratization  and  social- 
ization of  the  entire  race.  Nothing  is  truer  than  that  men 
are  no  more  nearly  equal  morally  and  intellectually  than 
physically;  nevertheless,  all  men  should  have  equal  privi- 
leges and  equal  opportunities  guaranteed  them  by  the  race 
to  be  men.  That  all  men  are  unequal  by  nature  is  no  reason 
why  society  should  be  organized  with  the  purpose  of  orig- 
inating and  perpetuating  another  and  more  grievous  ine- 
quality, that  of  civil,  political  and  economic  inequality. 
The  inequalities  of  nature  should  be  overcome  by  the  race 
instead  of  being  perpetuated  by  it.  This  is  another  of  the 
improvements  that  man  can  make  upon  nature,  and  that 
society  can  make  upon  the  individual.  What  irony  to  teach 
that  all  men  are  not  and  cannot  be  equal  politically,  then 
place  in  the  sovereign  position  some  incompetent  degenerate 
whose  ancestry  happened  to  occupy  it  by  force,  fraud  or 
chance!  True,  men  are  not  equal,  but  it  should  be  the 
business  of  society  to  see  that  its  really  superior  members 
have  an  opportunity  to  assert  and  maintain  their  superiority; 
that  is,  that  all  men  have  equal  rights  and  equal  oppor- 
tunities. The  economic  differences  among  men  to-day  are 
artificial,  obtained  by  birth  and  maintained  by  education 
and  social  environment.  Property  not  obtained  by  service 


FORESTALLING  CRITICISM  443 

generally  does  one  more  harm  than  good.  It  will  be  the 
business  of  oriented  society  to  see  fair  play,  to  give  every 
child  born  into  society  an  equal  advantage  with  every  other 
one  to  develop  its  nature  to  its  fullest  capacity,  let  it  occupy 
the  humblest  or  most  exalted  position  in  society,  remember- 
ing that  nothing  so  stunts,  so  degenerates  a  human  being  as 
wealth,  rank,  position,  and  the  lack  of  contact  with  the 
commonality  of  mankind. 

The  history  of  humanity  has  demonstrated  time  and  again 
the  impossibility  of  any  class's  being  able  to  perpetuate  its 
unequal  position  in  society.  In  all  cases  the  nation  which 
persists  in  violating  this  cardinal  law  of  human  association 
meets  with  destruction.  After  ages  of  culture  by  the  aris- 
tocracy, the  common  man  to-day  has  a  better  chance  of 
becoming  cultured  than  the  offspring  of  the  privileged 
classes.  The  best  way  to  bequeath  anything  to  one's  off- 
spring is  to  bequeath  it  to  the  race.  What  the  commonality 
inherits  from  all  humanity  benefits  it  more  than  what  the 
favored  classes  inherit  from  their  immediate  ancestors. 
Society  knows  no  aristocracy.  To  belong  to  a  class  of 
humanity  cuts  one  off  from  the  socializing  energies  of  the 
race.  It  is  to  be  placed  in  a  position  similar  to  that  of  an 
organ  cut  off  from  the  animal  body  by  ligatures,  or  to  have 
all  of  the  blood  of  the  animal  body  directed  to  one  organ  by 
some  congestive  disease.  Both  conditions  are  unnatural  and 
result  in  deterioration,  degeneracy  and  death. 

Nature  sets  its  head  hard  against  class  rule  in  society,  and 
so  far  in  history  it  has  been  the  only  deterrent  to  it.  The 
chief  condition  of  social  health  is  social  democracy.  Every 
class  that  has  established  itself  in  society  has  inevitably 
ended  in  degeneracy  and  death.  This  must  be  so  or  else  the 
race  as  a  whole,  under  the  rule  of  the  favored  few,  would  soon 
misdirect  all  the  energies  of  society;  and  society's  function 
as  a  social  organization,  that  of  expending  all  energy  in  the 
most  economical  manner  possible,  and  thus  produce  a  perfect 


444        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

individual,  would  be  completely  perverted.  Human  associa- 
tion is  an  organization  in  which  the  function  of  the  organiza- 
tion is  not  to  benefit  the  association  as  a  whole,  or  some 
class,  or  profession,  or  some  corporation,  or  some  great 
individual,  but  the  betterment  of  all  the  individuals  indis- 
criminately comprising  it,  the  least  as  well  as  the  greatest. 
All  human  association  is  created  for  the  individual,  and  any 
form  of  social  organization  that  does  not  recognize  this  car- 
dinal law  of  human  association  will  inevitably  become  extinct. 
The  very  function  of  society,  the  production  of  a  perfect 
individual,  and  thereby  the  expenditure  of  energy  with  the 
greatest  possible  economy,  would  be  completely  defeated  if 
individualism  or  class  rule  could  succeed  in  society.  As  a 
penalty  against  class  rule  we  see  the  wrecks  of  Babylon, 
Egypt  and  Rome. 

Among  the  social  organization  of  ants  and  bees,  it  has 
been  possible  to  subordinate,  subjugate  and  eliminate  the 
individual  completely.  There  we  see  class  rule  in  its  per- 
fected form.  Happily  for  the  human  race,  all  class  rule  in 
human  society  has  inevitably  ended  in  social  degeneracy  and 
death,  else  we  would  have  barriers  of  caste  to-day  as  insur- 
mountable as  the  specialized  functions  of  ants  and  bees. 
After  infinite  trials  at  social  organization,  nature,  through 
the  law  of  natural  selection  and  the  law  of  repetition,  orig- 
inated human  society,  with  the  function  of  producing  the 
perfect  individual,  because  by  so  doing  the  most  economic 
expenditure  of  energy  possible  is  attained. 

Mankind  is  the  God  Antaeus.  The  rulers  of  men  must 
touch  earth,  common  humanity,  daily,  or  else  they  lose  their 
strength,  virility.  This  is  not  true  in  one  line,  but  all — 
government,  business,  literature,  art,  the  church,  science 
and  philosophy. 

V 

As  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  kings  robs  man  of 
his  political  rights,  so  the  usurpation  of  the  professions 


FORESTALLING  CEITICISM  445 

deprives  him  of  his  intellectual  rights.  To-day  wnile  the 
common  man  spends  a  fourth  of  his  life  in  education,  our 
educational  systems  are  so  arranged  that  he  learns  nothing 
which  in  any  way  encroaches  upon  the  domain  of  the  profes- 
sions. The  difference  among  men  is  not  so  great  as  is  com- 
monly supposed.  The  commonest  man  thinks  about  the 
things  with  which  he  is  concerned  as  well  and  as  logically  as 
the  professional  man.  The  time  is  approaching  in  Western 
civilization,  through  universal  education,  when  the  division 
of  labor  known  as  the  professions  will  have  disappeared ;  for 
there  can  be  no  division  of  labor  in  living.  This  is  carrying 
a  device  of  political  economy  into  fields  (the  psychical)  where 
its  application  reverses  the  process  it  is  intended  to  accom- 
plish. All  men  should  live.  The  social  organism  is  oppo- 
site to  the  animal  organism  in  that  it  is  the  perfection  of  its 
units  that  is  its  function  instead  of  the  organism  as  a  whole. 
There  is  no  specialization  of  functions  of  the  units  in  the 
social  organism,  only  exchange  of  service.  The  social  units 
are  free  to  move  about,  and  the  ideal  individual  is  one  able 
and  competent  to  perform  any  and  all  social  functions.  The 
units  of  the  social  organism  are  opposite  to  the  units  of  the 
animal  organism,  they  having  no  specialization  of  function 
at  all.  If  history  teaches  anything,  it  is  that  no  set  of  men, 
corporations,  professions  or  classes  can  monopolize  life.  The 
only  healthful  part  of  humanity  is  the  common  people. 
They  are  the  race.  If  the  classes  and  professions  were  not 
constantly  replenished  from  the  masses,  they  would  become 
extinct  within  a  few  generations.  Degeneracy  is  a  natural 
leveling  process.  Sooner  or  later  we  will  have  a  democracy 
of  knowledge  and  morality  as  well  as  one  of  political  power. 
As  it  is  now  expected  that  all  men  shall  do  the  right,  the 
time  will  come  when  all  men  will  be  expected  to  know.  It 
is  just  as  necessary  that  all  men  should  think  for  themselves, 
know  themselves,  in  order  that  society  may  reach  its  highest 
possible  mental  and  moral  development,  as  that  every  man 


446        THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY 

shall  eat  for  himself  in  order  that  he  may  reach  perfect 
physical  development.  It  is  just  as  necessary  that  all  the 
individuals  of  society  shall  be  developed  to  their  fullest 
capacity  as  that  all  of  the  constitutional  units  of  the  animal 
body  be  healthful,  able  to  perform  their  functions,  for  in 
either  case,  the  whole  organism's  condition  is  determined 
by  the  condition  of  its  units ;  if  they  are  perfect,  it  will  be 
perfect;  if  they  are  diseased,  the  organism  will  be  diseased. 
The  weal  or  woe  of  society  is  determined  by  the  condition  of 
its  individuals.  So  let  democracy  be  loved  or  hated,  it  is 
either  social  democracy  or  social  death ;  let  it  be  practical  or 
not,  it  is  either  social  democracy  or  degeneracy.  When 
social  democracy,  motived  by  a  religion  based  on  morality, 
is  sought  as  a  remedy  for  degeneracy,  perhaps  it  will  not 
be  so  obnoxious  to  the  lofty,  supercilious  aristocrat.  The 
function  of  nature  is  to  produce  the  perfect  individual,  and 
that  is  the  function  of  society;  that  is  the  function  of  the 
social  organism.  Because  through  a  perfect  individual, 
created  by  a  perfect  social  organism,  the  energies  of  nature 
can  be  expended  in  the  most  economical  manner  possible ; 
and  to  more  and  more  economical  expenditure  of  energy  in 
nature  is  the  tendency,  seen  throughout  nature,  beginning 
in  physical  nature,  tracing  it  through  organic,  and  ending  in 
society.  But  for  the  fact  that  the  individual  can  reach  a 
higher  development  in  society  than  alone,  there  would  be  no 
society;  and  society  will  never  reach  perfection  until  it  con- 
sciously knows  that  its  true  function  is  to  develop  all  indi- 
viduals to  their  highest  capacity,  and  realizes  it  in  a  perfect 
socialization  of  the  race.  The  professions  and  classes  must 
go  with  the  other  rank  individualism  the  race  has  adopted 
in  order  to  socialize  itself  indirectly  when  not  able  to 
accomplish  it  directly,  owing  to  lack  of  high  intellectuality 
and  knowledge  possible  only  through  the  professions  and 
classes.  Nature  is  never  choice  in  its  means,  and  always 
uses  individualism  to  initiate  social  functions ;  but  inevitably 


FORESTALLING  CRITICISM  447 

abandons  it  when  the  race  has  reached  sufficient  develop- 
ment to  adopt  social  methods.  And  no  matter  how  difficult 
of  realization  democracy  is,  political,  social,  intellectual,  its 
realization  should  be  eternally  sought  after,  for  through 
social  democracy  alone  can  the  social  organism  be  healthful, 
beautiful,  perfect. 

To-day  if  civilization  be  looked  at  from  the  universal  point 
of  view,  it  will  be  found  that  the  older  societies  are  bound  in 
the  most  rigid  laws,  customs,  and  conventionalities.  Begin- 
ning with  China,  we  see  a  type  of  civilization  that  is  prac- 
tically stationary,  incapable  of  progress.  Passing  to  the  west 
through  Russia,  we  see  humanity  living  under  a  society  not 
so  rigid,  and  susceptible  of  some  improvement.  Then  going 
to  the  west  of  Europe  we  see  society  in  a  still  more  plastic 
form.  Crossing  the  Atlantic,  we  find  in  the  United  States 
the  most  democratic  nation  on  the  globe,  but  not  the  most 
susceptible  to  advancement  of  any  people  owing  to  its  rigid 
national  constitution.  Still  its  government  and  life  are 
quite  variable.  Passing  still  west  and  crossing  the  Pacific, 
we  find  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand  the  most  plastic 
forms  of  society  in  the  world.  Humanity  seems  to  be  able 
to  throw  off  its  old  hampering  institutions  only  by  migrating. 
This  is  the  explanation  of  the  migratory  instinct  that  is  seen 
in  humanity  from  the  stone  age  up  to  the  ceaseless  migra- 
tion to  the  Western  hemisphere  during  the  last  three  cen- 
turies. It  is  one  manifestation  of  the  great  instinct  of 
religion,  for  nothing  short  of  religion  ever  could  have  sus- 
tained man  in  some  of  his  migrations. 

Most  of  the  arguments  made  by  capitalism  against  cooper- 
ation are  but  excuses  similar  to  those  made  by  the  wolf 
before  eating  the  inoffensive  lamb.  Men  of  the  world  dare 
not  act  openly  and  above  board.  They  keep  up  a  masking 
of  tyranny  in  the  name  of  liberty,  hypocrisy  in  the  name  of 
religion,  superstition  in  the  name  of  science.  One's  argu- 
ments are  almost  as  futile  as  the  lamb's  with  the  hungry 


448      THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF   HUMANITY 

wolf.  Yet  while  the  specialized  individual  almost  invariably 
meets  with  oppression,  still  society  as  a  whole  is  insensibly 
and  unconsciously  brought  to  perfection  by  the  slow  actions 
of  the  infinitestimal  improvements  of  the  specialized  indi- 
vidual and  the  ultimate  socialization  of  the  race  is  an  abso- 
lute certainty  in  the  course  of  time. 

Society  to-day,  dominated  by  the  philosophy  of  Individ- 
ualism, is  really  based  on  immorality.  But  while  our  funda- 
mental principles  are  immoral,  yet  owing  to  our  theological 
social  sense,  we  only  call  those  acts  crimes  which  carry  our 
principles  to  their  logical  conclusions,  such  as  robbery,  mur- 
der, and  treason ;  and  we  wink  at  and  acquiesce  in  all  the 
adroit  and  skilful  application  of  our  principles  to  life,  no 
matter  if  they  result  in  wrongs  as  great  as  robbery,  murder, 
and  treason,  such  as  exploitation,  oppression,  class-rule,  so 
long  as  they  are  masked  in  the  conventional  garb  of  the 
time-honored  names:  Individual  Eights,  Property  Eights, 
Vested  Interests  and  Public  Policy.  The  only  reason  we  can 
not  live  in  peace  and  happiness  the  world  over  is  because 
life,  being  based  on  a  form  of  Individualism,  the  expendi- 
ture of  energy  according  to  the  intellect,  uncontrolled  by 
scientific  moral  and  social  senses,  necessarily  results  in 
waste  of  energy,  evil,  immorality.  The  only  possible  way  to 
reach  peace,  security,  happiness  and  morality,  the  world 
over,  is  to  adopt  the  expenditure  of  energy  by  scientific 
moral  and  social  senses,  which  will  result  in  universal  good — 
morality  sustained  by  religion,  the  perfect  economic  expen- 
diture of  all  energy,  the  summum  bonum;  then  individual- 
ism will  be  supplanted,  and  the  socialization  of  the  race  will 
be  realized. 


CHAPTER   XXI 

THE    APPLICATION    AND    CONCLUSION. 


Throughout  the  human  race,  in  every  nation,  in  every 
clime,  there  are  millions  of  individuals  ready  for  the  new 
gospel;  millions  have  experienced  the  new  religion.  In 
every  newspaper,  in  every  magazine,  in  every  up-to-date 
book,  in  the  temple  of  theology,  in  the  laboratory  of  science, 
we  see  adumbrations  of  the  monistic  philosophy  here  taught. 
The  world  is  ready  for  intellectual  orientation,  conscious 
morality,  producing  conscious  religion.  He  who  sees  the 
truth,  let  him  fearlessly  proclaim  it;  and  they  who  hear  will 
listen,  for  the  hour  has  come  for  the  proclamation  of  the 
solidarity  of  the  race.  Social  consciousness  has  dawned, 
socialization  has  begun.  The  incrustations  of  the  ages  have 
been  broken,  and  the  young  social  organism  can  now  grow 
and  develop.  As  the  white  corpuscles  of  the  blood  fearlessly 
attack  disease  germs  and  die  or  conquer,  let  the  white  souls 
of  humanity,  sustained  by  conscious  religion,  go  forth  and 
battle  with  ignorance,"  vested  wrongs,  social  treason,  and 
less  daring,  less  courageous,  less  altruistic  souls  will  follow, 
until  finally  the  truth  humanity  has  realized  to-day  will  be 
a  nucleus  about  which  will  grow  the  beautiful,  free,  con- 
scious life  of  humanity,  perfectly  adjusted  to  its  habitat, 
through  verifiable  public  corporate  knowledge,  and  the  per- 
fection of  the  social  organism  and  the  socialization  of 
humanity  will  have  been  realized. 

The  teachers  of  the  scientific  social  sense  to-day  will  meet 
with  disapproval  from  the  teachers  of  the  theological  social 
sense  the  same  as  in  the  days  of  yore.  And  there  will  be 
those  who  will  cry,  "Crucify  him!  Crucify  him!"  And  no 

449 


450      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF  HUMANITY 

doubt  a  Miletus  will  come  forward  with  his  indictment: 
"Miletus,  the  son  of  Miletus  of  Pittea,  impeaches  Socrates, 
the  son  of  Sophronicus  of  Alopece:  Socrates  is  guilty,  inas- 
much as  he  does  not  believe  in  the  gods  whom  the  city  wor- 
ships, but  introduces  other  strange  deities;  he  is  also  guilty 
inasmuch  as  he  corrupts  the  young  men;  and  the  punishment 
he  has  incurred  is  death."*  But  withal  the  socialization 
of  humanity  cannot  be  checked. 

The  world  is  sick  of  theology.  If  rightly  promulgated,  a 
scientific  social  sense  can  spread  throughout  Western  civiliza- 
tion in  a  life  time.  Science  is  inevitable.  A  naturalistic 
conception  of  religion  is  inevitable.  It  is  this  or  back  to  the 
night  of  the  Dark  Ages ;  for  supernatural  religion  cannot  rest 
on  scientific  knowledge.  The  intellectual  anarchy  of  civili- 
zation to-day  ought  to  show  any  candid  mind  the  inadequacy 
of  the  theological  social  sense  to  adapt  the  race  to  its 
environment  or  the  individual  to  the  race.  Christianity  is 
in  identically  the  same  position  that  Paganism  was  in  at  the 
decline  and  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

Gibbon  says:  "The  spirit  of  inquiry,  prompted  by  emula- 
tion, and  supported  by  freedom,  had  divided  the  public 
teachers  of  philosophy  into  a  variety  of  contending  sects ; 
but  the  ingenious  youth,  who,  from  every  part,  resorted  to 
Athens  and  the  other  seats  of  learning  in  the  Empire,  were 
alike  instructed  in  every  school  to  reject  and  despise  the 
religion  of  the  multitude.  How,  indeed,  was  it  possible  that 
a  philosopher  should  accept,  as  divine  truth,  the  idle  tales 
of  the  poets  and  the  incoherent  traditions  of  antiquity.  We 
may  be  well  assured  that  a  writer  conversant  with  the  world, 
would  never  have  ventured  to  expose  the  gods  of  his  country 
to  public  ridicule,  had  they  not  already  been  the  objects  of 
secret  contempt  among  the  polished  and  enlightened  orders 
of  society." — Vol.  I,  p.  76,  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire. 

*DIOGENES  LAERTIUS,  p.  72. 


THE  APPLICATION   AND   CONCLUSION     451 

So  with  us  to-day;  Christianity  is  believed,  used  and  ridi- 
culed. Mankind  is  worthy  of  a  verifiable  social  sense; 
worthy  of  a  conscious  existence ;  worthy  of  a  religion  that 
one  is  not  ashamed  of  and  does  not  have  to  apologize  for, 
and  thus  be  forever  done  with  acting  blindly  from  instinct,  as 
to-day. 

It  is  not  heresy  in  theological  beliefs  mat  ostracises  the 
dynamists  of  society  to-day,  but  heresy  in  economic  and 
sociologic  doctrines.  The  oppressors,  the  exploiters  of 
humanity,  the  traitors  to  society,  the  individualists,  all  favor 
orthodox  religion,  because  it  makes  the  race  acquiesce  in  its 
meager  existence ;  but,  as  did  the  Romans  of  old,  they  do  not 
object  to  passing  their  jests  at  its  expense  in  private.  But 
the  economic  heretic,  one  who  opposes  established  evils, 
vested  wrongs,  one  who  teaches  the  solidarity  of  the  race, 
and  the  social  function  of  property  is  accursed.  There  are 
plutocrats  over  all  Western  civilization  who  contribute  liber- 
ally to  the  support  of  superstitious  revivalists  like  Mr.  Mun- 
hall  and  the  late  Mr.  Moody,  who  would  look  upon  a  course 
of  popular  lectures  on  sociology  by  Prof.  R.  T.  Ely,  Prof. 
Thomas  E.  Will,  Dr.  Albion  W.  Small,  or  Prof.  Lester  F. 
Ward  as  a  public  calamity.  The  cry  of  "yellow  journal- 
ism" directed  against  people's  papers  is  an  argument,  using 
the  prejudice  against  sensational  journalism  to  suppress 
such  papers  for  being  socialistic  and  defenders  of  the  com- 
mon people.  What  does  capitalism  care  for  "yellow  journal- 
ism"? But  it  is  more  effective  sometimes  to  fight  one,  and 
adroitly  use  the  concealed  weapon  of  prejudice  instead  of 
the  blunderbuss  of  a  bad  argument  in  an  open  fight.  How 
undignified  it  will  be  deemed  by  the  exploiting  classes  for  :i 
philosophical  book  to  stoop  to  such  commonplace  things 
as  the  foregoing;  but  fortunately  Herbert  Spencer,  in  his 
Principles  of  Ethics,  has  set  an  example,  as  if  the  truth 
needed  one! 

To  millions  of  thinkers  a  social  revolution,  similar  to  the 


452       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

French  Revolution,  seems  to  be  inevitable.  It  will  not 
come.  The  orientation  of  the  race  will  be  effected  by  peace 
instead  of  war;  by  education,  not  force;  by  ballots,  not 
bullets.  The  change  to  be  made  is  not  so  radical  after  all. 
It  is  not  a  change  in  institutions  so  much  as  a  change  in  the 
kind  of  facts  that  are  to  produce  religion.  It  is  the  doing  of 
things  according  to  reason  instead  of  blind  instinct;  accord- 
ing to  knowledge  instead  of  custom.  In  our  transitional 
stage  private  ownership  of  property  is  not  what  is  so  very 
objectionable  to  true  morality  and  true  religion  as  is  the  priv- 
ate use  of  property  at  the  expense  of  the  rest  of  humanity.  If 
one  man  can  utilize  property  amounting  to  a  billion  of  dol- 
lars, so  long  as  he  keeps  all  of  it  in  active  production,  pays 
wages  that  permit  a  high  standard  of  living,  or  handles  the 
property  in  the  most  economic  manner  possible  through 
profit-sharing  or  any  perfectly  just  management,  there  is 
little  room  for  complaint  in  our  transitional  stage  of  exist- 
ence, and  much  to  commend.  It  is  keeping  out  of  active 
production  vast  stores  of  capital,  in  the  form  of  private 
palaces,  yachts,  private  hunting  grounds,  private  parks,  vast 
quantities  of  land  for  speculative  purposes,  the  holding  out 
of  production  vast  quantities  of  capital  to  restrict  produc- 
tion, cornering  the  products  of  the  earth,  the  formation  of 
trusts  for  private  purposes,  owning  the  resources  of  nature 
and  using  them  exclusively  for  private  advantage,  the 
hoarding  of  vast  quantities  of  gold,  the  manipulating  of  com- 
merce for  the  few  and  not  for  the  many,  the  organization  of 
civilization  in  all  lines  so  that  it  will  direct  all  the  products 
of  the  earth  into  a  few  hands — this  it  is  that  is  a  sin,  a  crime, 
a  sacrilege  against  the  human  race ;  and  not  to  do  the  best 
one  can  in  our  transitional  period  in  human  development, 
and  be  eternally  striving  to  realize  the  socialization  of  the 
race  through  the  moral  and  social  senses.  Xo  man  has  a 
right  to  live  in  luxury  while  there  is  not  an  opportunity  for 
every  other  man  to  live  free  from  want.  Every  individual 


THE  APPLICATION  AND   CONCLUSION     453 

on  earth  is  entitled  to  a  home;  and  it  is  the  duty  of  every 
other  individual  to  help  him  to  get  it.  To  live  in  a  palace 
and  be  moral,  social  and  religious  is  utterly  impossible  in  our 
or  any  other  stage  of  civilization  to  come,  while  another  is 
compelled,  although  industrious,  to  live  in  a  hovel.  Such  a 
life  is  a  miserable,  artificial,  unnatural,  dehumanized  exist- 
ence. A  child  reared  in  a  palace  can  never  be  a  human 
being  in  the  fullest  sense  of  that  word,  and  is  really  more  to 
be  pitied  than  one  reared  in  a  hut.  If  the  individual  would 
only  aim  at  a  real  kind  of  life,  that  life  which  will  enable  us 
to  realize  the  highest  citizenship  at  our  stage  of  civilization, 
how  infinitely  better  would  this  democracy  be  than  the 
artificial  life  of  our  plutocracy  with  all  of  its  vain  preten- 
sions and  gilded  misery.  It  is  the  function  of  the  social 
sense  to  teach  such  a  life ;  and  to  realize  it  in  the  life  of 
every  individual  is  the  work  of  the  coming  morality.  The 
rich  will  not  be  asked  to  give  up  their  riches,  but  to  use 
them  for  the  benefit  of  the  race  as  well  as  themselves.  But 
if  wealth  is  wasted  or  persistently  used  to  the  detriment  of 
the  race,  it  ought  to  be  confiscated ;  for  it  has  ever  been  a 
law  of  society  to  confiscate  the  wealth  of  traitors ;  and  who 
is  more  of  a  traitor  to  the  race  than  the  one  who  openly 
defies  it,  persistently  uses  it  and  abuses  it?  Society  simply 
lets  the  individual  hold  property  in  trust  for  it,  because 
society  creates  all  values ;  and  when  the  individual  betrays 
the  trust  by  exclusive  diversion  of  the  trust  property  to  his 
own  use,  he  should  forfeit  it,  because  he  has  stopped  its 
productiveness  and  thus  destroyed  it.* 

This  doctrine  is  but  the  scientific  truth  under  the  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  in  his  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  It  is  stating 

*"At  present  the  State  protects  men  in  the  possession|and  enjoyment  of  their 
property,  and  defines  what  that  property  is.  The  justification  for  its  doing  so 
is  that  its  action  promotes  the  good  of  the  people.  If  it  can  be  clearly  proved 
that  the  abolition  of  property  would  tend  still  more  to  promote  the  good  of  the 
people,  the  State  will  have  the  same  justification  for  abolishing  property  that 
it  now  has  for  maintaining  it."— Administrative  Nihilism,  by  PROF.  THOMAS  H. 
HTJXLBT. 


454       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

intellectually  what  he  stated  emotionally.  He  stated  the 
truth  as  He  felt  it;  it  is  here  stated  as  seen.  Jesus  spoke 
the  truth  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  moral  sense ;  it  is 
here  spoken  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  social  sense.  Eich 
individuals  who  own  nine-tenths  of  the  earth  need  not  fear 
that  the  masses  will  rise  in  their  might  and  demand  a  divi- 
sion of  property.  No.  The  socialization  of  humanity  will 
not  come  about  that  way.  But  when  a  true  social  sense  is 
worked  out  by  humanity,  the  smallness  of  every  day  life  will 
be  felt.  Then  there  will  arise  in  the  hearts  of  all  a  necessity 
for  the  emotion  of  real  religion.  The  individual  will  not  be 
satisfied  with  his  meager  existence  of  selfishness;  and  the 
work  of  perfecting  the  race  alone  will  be  competent  to  arouse 
the  emotion  of  religion ;  then  the  problem  of  human  salva- 
tion and  human  perfection  will  be  solved.  The  solidarity  of 
humanity,  the  socialization  of  the  race  will  be  inevitable 
when  science  points  the  way  and  the  enthusiasm  of  religion 
is  the  motor  power. 

II 

When  reasoning  about  the  race,  reformers  are  prone  to 
attribute  motives  to  the  different  classes  of  society  the  same 
as  to  individuals,  and  we  have  done  that  somewhat  in  this 
book,  and  usually  they  use  invective  in  denouncing  one  class 
for  what  it  has  accomplished  for  itself  to  the  detriment  of 
the  race  as  a  whole,  forgetting  that  so  far  in  the  history  of 
humanity,  society  is  purely  an  unconscious  product  due  to  the 
nature  of  man  and  the  conditions  of  the  earth  where  the 
specific  society  may  exist.  But  just  as  it  has  been  impos- 
sible for  me  in  writing  this  book  to  keep  from  using  teleo- 
logical  language  in  describing  the  processes  of  nature,  so  has 
it  been  impossible  for  me  to  keep  from  attributing  motives 
to  the  different  classes  in  society  in  their  actions  upon  one 
another.  This  form  of  expression  is  absolutely  necessary, 
for  men  cannot  understand  facts  stated  in  language  other 


THE  APPLICATION   AND   CONCLUSION     455 

than  their  own.  But  let  us  be  as  scientific  as  we  may,  there 
comes  a  time  when  class  feeling  becomes  conscious,  and 
classes  act  with  a  motive  just  as  individuals  do,  and  they  are 
perfectly  responsible  and  amenable  to  the  race  as  a  whole ; 
for  example,  the  French  nobility  just  before  the  great  Revo- 
lution and  the  English  nobility  of  to-day.*  And  capitalism 
to-day  in  the  United  States  shows  its  class  consciousness  by 
endowing  universities  to  teach  its  particular  doctrines,  sub- 
sidizing the  public  press  to  popularize  them,  and  contribu- 
ting to  the  support  of  Christianity  (which,  if  true,  would 
send  every  mother's  son  of  the  capitalists  to  hell;  but  which 
none  of  them  believe  in),  and  fostering  it  on  account  of  its 
conservative  teachings  and  its  benumbing  effects  upon  the 
oppressed  and  exploited,  holding  them  in  docile  subjection. 
The  race  has  known  several  different  forms  of  existence, 
which  may  be  named  from  the  prevailing  form  of  labor;  for 
example,  animal  idleness,  slavery,  feudalism,  capitalism. 
Now  it  is  certainly  not  deep  thinking  to  attribute  to  the 
slave  owner  conscious  motives  in  establishing  slavery.  It 
grew  up  in  society  simply  because  under  it  the  race  could 

*  "The  British  aristocracy  envisages  itself  as  no  harmless  absurdity,  no  an- 
tique caricature,  but  a  genuine  and  powerful  and  living  dragon,  to  be  faced  and 
fought,  a  demon  to  be  exorcised,  a  barrier  and  a  stumbling-block  in  the  path  of 
progress,  to  be  removed  by  pick  and  ax  by  the  arms  of  Democracy,  as  soon  as 
ever  that  somnolent  and  thickheaded  mob  awakes  to  a  sense  of  its  true  inter- 
ests. .  .  .  But  the  worst  of  aU  of  its  corollaries  is  undoubtedly  this— that  it 
stands  hopelessly  in  the  way  of  the  recognition  of  all  real  betterness.  Nobody 
is  anything  by  the  side  of  a  peer.  His  visible  greatness  eclipses  all  else.  There 
is  not  a  country  so  lord-ridden  as  England ;  there  is  not  a  country  where  liter- 
ary men,  artists,  thinkers,  discoverers,  great  scientists,  great  poets— the  proph- 
ets and  seers  of  the  race— fill  so  small  a  place  comparatively  in  the  public 
estimation.  ...  No  one  can  quite  free  himself  from  this  hateful  supersti- 
tion. One  can  not  isolate  one's  self  absolutely  from  one's  social  atmosphere. 
And  all  this  is  part  of  the  effect,  though  in  part  the  cause,  of  the  continued 
existence  of  so  absurd  an  anachronism  as  the  British  aristocracy.  .  .  .  Every 
reformer  in  England  knows  how  fatal  to  the  spiritual  and  intellectual  life  of 
the  country,  quite  as  much  so  as  the  political  and  social  development,  is  this 
debasing  and  degrading  element  in  the  community.  England  can  never  be 
free,  wholesome  and  whole-souled  till  she  has  cast  out  forever  these  belated 
Gods  and  learned  to  pay  homage  to  the  shrine  of  the  Genuine  Betterness."— 
GRANT  ALLEN. 


456       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

accumulate  more  property,  wealth,  than  under  free  labor,  or  no 
labor  as  in  the  savage  state.  It  conserved  more  of  the  ener- 
gies of  the  race  than  free  labor;  it  was  more  economic.  It 
succeeded,  not  on  account  of  the  craftiness  and  cruelty  of 
the  slave  owner,  but  because  under  it  the  race  everywhere 
could  accumulate  more  wealth  than  under  free  labor;  and 
because  wealth  is  the  most  important  means  to  civilization, 
and  it  does  not  matter  how  it  is  produced,  so  it  is  produced. 
Wealth  is  the  blood  of  the  social  organism.  Following 
slavery  was  feudalism.  It  was  an  improvement  upon  slavery. 
It  was  a  more  economic  expenditure  of  energy  than  slavery. 
Feudalism  was  not  consciously  devised,  but  initiated  by  some 
individual  or  tribe,  and  it  was  adopted  by  the  race  on 
account  of  its  economy.  It  was  certainly  the  best  form  of 
life  possible  to  human  beings  with  no  higher  social  sense  than 
the  people  of  the  Dark  Ages.  Feudalism  gave  way  to  capital- 
ism, because  capitalism  is  better  able  to  produce,  to  conserve 
the  wealth  of  nations.  It  is  a  more  economic  way  of  expend- 
ing energy.  The  capitalist  did  not  invent  the  system.  It 
grew  up  unconsciously  and  exists  to-day  because  in  the 
struggle  for  existence  between  nation  and  nation  capitalism 
expends  human  energy  more  economically  than  any  other 
form  of  industry  yet  devised  by  the  race. 

It  will  be  seen  that  there  is  a  progressive  degree  of  econo- 
my in  each  of  these  systems  of  industry  beginning  with  ani- 
mal idleness  and  ending  in  capitalism.  History  shows  that 
these  forms  of  industry  have  been  universal,  and  whenever  a 
nation  inaugurated  an  improved  form,  the  other  and  rival 
nations  followed  it.  It  will  be  so  with  cooperation.  Cooper- 
ation is  the  most  economic  form  of  expending  human  energy 
ever  invented  by  man.  This  is  shown  in  the  private  cooper- 
ation of  our  great  trusts  and  in  our  cooperative  institutions, 
such  as  our  common  schools.  That  nation  which  first 
adopts  cooperation  will  secure  an  advantage  in  the  struggle 
for  existence  between  nation  and  nation  that  will  compel  the 


THE   APPLICATION  AND   CONCLUSION     457 

other  nations  of  the  world  to  adopt  it  or  else  fall  behind  in 
civilization.  When  an  improved  form  of  expending  energy 
is  discovered,  it  inevitably  is  adopted  by  the  whole  race, 
although  it  may  take  centuries.  China  as  yet  has  not  fully 
adopted  capitalism,  bnt  it  is  rapidly  doing  so.  Japan 
effected  the  transition  within  less  than  one  century.  One 
nation  forces  another  to  adopt  its  methods  of  expending 
energy  or  else  supplants  it  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 
Systems  of  finance,  systems  of  taxation,  systems  of  labor, 
systems  of  living  are  inaugurated  by  one  nation  and  pass  to 
all  humanity.  A  few  years  from  now  a  savage  will  be  as 
rare  as  a  gorilla  is  to-day.  And  just  as  advancing  humanity 
has  ever  forced  its  improvements  upon  its  tardy  brothers,  so 
to-day  will  that  government  which  first  adopts  government 
by  public  corporate  knowledge,  conscious  existence,  coopera- 
tion, force  the  world  to  its  position.  That  form  of  expend- 
ing energy  in  society  which  is  the  most  economic  will 
ultimately  prevail,  because  civilization  is  but  a  problem  in 
the  economic  expenditure  of  energy,  no  matter  if  it  takes 
devious  courses  in  amusement,  fine  art,  religion.  The 
greatest  economy  can  be  effected  only  by  a  social  organism 
which  can  be  developed  only  by  these  apparently  uneconomic 
methods  of  expending  energy.  And  good  souls  need  not 
worry  about  the  final  triumph  of  cooperation  and  socializa- 
tion, and  the  individualist  need  not  be  jubilant  over  the 
iniquitous  distribution  of  property  to-day  that  drifts  all  of 
it  into  his  own  hands;  for  ultimately  the  most  economic 
form  of  expending  human  energy  will  be  arrived  at  and  will 
obtain  here  on  earth — cooperation  under  a  pure  democracy. 
Just  as  one  nation  instinctively  adopts  the  methods  of  its 
rivals  in  warfare,  so  will  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  imitate 
one  another  according  to  the  law  of  repetition,  when  some 
nation  adopts  cooperation,  let  it  be  monarchic  Russia  or 
republican  New  Zealand.  It  takes  no  coercion  to  got  ideas 
of  economy  practiced;  they  need  only  be  known  to  be 


458       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

adopted.  Human  energy  is  similar  to  any  other  energy;  it 
follows  the  line  of  least  resistance  or  greatest  attraction, 
and  when  the  way  is  once  opened  to  it,  it  inevitably  goes 
that  way  in  spite  of  all  obstruction. 

The  capitalistic  society  to-day  time  and  again  has  been 
accused  of  maintaining  its  position  by  nefarious  means,  but 
this  is  not  strictly  true,  for  capital  invariably  takes  the  most 
eccn  mic  form  of  expenditure,  for  by  so  doing  it  is  thus 
saved.  It  is  not  only  the  social  democrat  who  advocates 
cooperation  to  destroy  competition  in  order  to  save  human 
energy,  but  also  the  trust  magnate.  But  the  social  demo- 
crat does  not  stop  there ;  it  is  he  who  advocates  the  national- 
ization of  public  utilities  so  that  there  will  be  as  much 
economy  in  the  distribution  and  consumption  of  capital  as  in 
its  creation.  The  favorite  literature  of  the  exploiters  of  the 
race  is  the  works  of  the  socialists,  sifted  through  college 
professors.  The  principle  of  cooperation  was  originated  by 
the  socialists  to  be  applied  to  humanity  as  a  whole ;  but  the 
trust  magnates,  not  being  so  generous,  apply  it  to  their  own 
use  to  the  detriment  of  the  race  as  a  whole.  But  this  is  only 
another  example  of  the  application  of  a  social  principle  by 
society  through  individual  effort,  owing  to  the  inability  of 
society  as  a  whole  to  apply  it  directly  to  itself.  It  is  in  this 
way  that  social  processes  are  always  initiated.  The  trust 
magnate  does  not  bother  himself  about  the  morality  of  the 
situation.  He  plans  to  destroy  competition,  not  that  he 
hates  competition,  but  because  he  wishes  to  economize  cap- 
ital, knowing  competition  dissipates  it.  The  trust  magnate 
often  acts  blindly.  It  is  the  socialist  who  traces  the  opera- 
tion to  its  source,  and  tells  what  has  been  done,  that  gets  to 
the  bottom  of  things.  Facts  go  before  theories;  and  knowl- 
edge before  institutions. 

The  function  of  capital  is  to  benefit  the  race  directly,  the 
individual  indirectly,  and  not  the  few  capitalists  who  man- 
age it.  Capitalism  has  grown  up  in  society,  because  with 


THE   APPLICATION   AND   CONCLUSION     459 

his  present  intelligence  and  morality  the  individual  is  not 
competent  to  adopt  any  other  system  of  industry;  and 
nature,  not  being  choice  of  means,  takes  what  is  at  hand  and 
lets  it  go  until  something  more  economic  is  found  available. 
To  create  capital  simply  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  it  accumu- 
late would  be  to  turn  the  race  into  a  miser,  which  is  cer- 
tainly not  the  function  of  wealth.  To  let  the  race  accumulate 
it  for  the  pleasure  of  the  individuals  who  manage  it,  to  let 
them  turn  it  to  their  own  advantage  would  make  humanity  a 
host  and  the  capitalist  a  parasite,  which  certainly  cannot  be 
the  ultimate  function  of  wealth ;  yet  it  is  the  contention  of 
capitalism.  Capitalism  makes  wealth  beneficial  to  the  race 
according  to  natural  law;  it  is  wasted  in  dissipation  and 
neutralization  under  the  laws  of  competition,  and  not  con- 
served in  distribution  and  consumption  according  to  the 
moral  and  social  senses.  Cooperation  would  direct  wealth 
into  channels  making  it  benefit  all  and  be  a  detriment  to 
none,  and  thus  realize  the  true  function  of  wealth  in  the 
socialization  of  the  race.  Capital,  to  be  perfectly  economic, 
should  be  used  for  the  race  as  a  whole,  and  not  the  indi- 
viduals who  control  it;  for  it  is  purely  a  product  of  the  race, 
gets  its  value  from  the  race,  and  is  produced  and  accumu- 
lated by  the  race. 

Of  what  use  would  gold  be  to  a  man  on  an  uninhabited 
island;  what  benefit  would  a  railroad  have  been  running 
through  the  North  American  continent  at  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  century?  Capital  is  capital  on  account  of 
the  needs  and  wants  of  civilized  humanity;  it  is  purely  a 
social  product,  and  it  should  serve  a  social  and  moral  pur- 
pose, that  of  creating  a  perfect  individual  by  creating  a  per- 
fect society;  and  it  will  do  so  when  the  energy  of  society  is 
expended  not  only  in  production,  but  in  distribution  and 
consumption  along  the  most  economic  channels  possible. 
But  economy  in  the  consumption  of  capital  is  not  the  great- 
est which  conserves  it  best  in  the  sense  of  saving  it,  but 


460       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

that  which  consumes  it  best  in  the  development  of  the  indi- 
vidual mentally,  morally  and  physically.  In  the  use  of  cap- 
ital for  the  development  of  the  individual  or  the  perfection 
of  the  social  organization,  extravagance  is  the  greatest 
economy.  The  great  mistake  in  thinking  along  this  line  is 
to  believe  that  economy  is  always  saving,  and  that  the  man- 
agement of  capital,  which  results  in  its  accumulation,  is  the 
best.  It  is  not  so.  This  is  the  policy  of  the  miser.  Energy 
in  human  society  not  only  expends  itself  along  the  line  of 
least  resistance  in  opposition,  but  along  the  line  of  great- 
est attraction.  Energy  is  expended  in  play  as  well  as  in 
work ;  in  fine  art,  as  well  as  in  useful  art ;  in  moral  develop- 
ment, as  well  as  in  physical.  Capital  does  not  serve  its  true 
function  if,  finally,  it  does  not  dissipate  itself  in  the  perfec- 
tion of  the  individual,  and  thereby  the  perfection  of  the  race. 
The  ultimate  function  of  capital  is  the  perfection  of  the  race. 
If  accumulating  wealth  alone  was  the  function  of  civiliza- 
tion, then  indeed  would  capitalism  be  the  best  form  of 
society;  and  not  only  that,  but  all  wealth  should  be  put  into 
as  few  hands  as  possible,  so  it  could  not  be  consumed  at  all. 
This  is  the  logical  result  of  capitalism,  and  is  the  reductio  ad 
dbsurdum  of  its  principles.  But  the  true  theory  of  property 
is  that  its  function  is  purely  social.  Each  individual  should 
receive  a  sufficient  amount  of  property  for  his  service,  what- 
ever it  may  be,  that  will  enable  him  to  realize  his  highest 
nature,  mentally,  morally  and  physically;  so  that  he  may 
reach  perfection  through  society.  Property  is  the  life  blood 
of  the  social  organism,  and  to  perform  its  true  function,  it 
mnst  be  distributed  throughout  the  organism,  supplying 
each  individual  according  to  his  needs,  so  that  he  can  render 
service  to  the  social  organism  according  to  his  functions. 

But  the  present  capitalist  class  either  dissipates  the  vast 
wealth  entrusted  to  it  by  society  on  private  follies,  vices  and 
luxury,  or  it  uses  it  to  keep  up  vast  nobilities,  plutocracies 
and  idle  classes,  resulting  in  the  poverty  of  the  people 


THE   APPLICATION  AND   CONCLUSION     461 

through  useless  and  wicked  wars  and  preparations  for  wars, 
including  the  world's  pernicious  military  systems  of  endless 
armies  and  ever  increasing  navies.  This  is  not  only  a  great 
wrong  to  the  race,  but  also  to  the  capitalists  themselves,  for 
such  a  form  of  life  invariably  ends  in  misery  and  degenera- 
tion to  all.  Only  that  capitalist  is  happy  and  healthful, 
mentally,  morally  and  physically,  who  recognizes  the  social 
function  of  capital,  and  lives  simply  and  directs  his  vast 
wealth  to  the  betterment  of  the  race,  mentally,  morally  and 
physically.  Gorgeous  palaces,  private  parks,  beautiful  art 
galleries  which  are  not  open  to  the  public  are  a  misdirection 
of  capital.  The  "smart  set"  of  society,  from  one  end  to  the 
other,  does  nothing,  but  misdirects  and  wastes  capital. 
"Wealth  is  produced  by  the  public  and  for  the  public.  The 
greater  part  of  wealth  is  wealth  because  it  supplies  the  needs 
of  the  people,  and  it  is  this  part  of  wealth  that  the  public 
produces ;  and  hence  wealth  should  be  a  public  store  for  the 
purpose  of  perfecting  the  individual  and  society,  and  not  for 
the  amusement  of  a  class  of  idle  dunces.  What  we  are  all 
after  is  happiness,  and  if  simple  living  is  the  way,  gilded 
misery  is  no  better  than  squalid  poverty.  All  the  great, 
the  good,  and  the  beautiful  things  should  be  open  to  all.  It 
is  the  direst  waste  to  make  some  great  product  of  art  per- 
sonal property.  It  does  not  diminish  it  in  value  to  let  the 
whole  world  see  a  picture  or  read  a  poem.  The  wealth  of 
the  world  should  be  used  in  creating  good,  useful  and  beau- 
tiful things,  not  for  a  few,  but  for  all. 

Despite  our  great  knowledge,  despite  our  religion,  we  still 
blindly  battle  for  property,  sustained  by  the  savage  instinct  to 
accumulate,  which  originated  in  the  race  when  starvation  stood 
us  in  the  face  every  day.  The  chief  obstruction  now  to  the 
development  of  the  race,  when  property,  owing  to  machinery, 
is  almost  as  plentiful  as  air  and  water,  is  this  same  blind 
instinct  to  accumulate  which  makes  it  as  difficult  to  get  a 
living  to-day,  owing  to  the  obstructions  of  self-interest  in 


462       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

distribution,  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  the  dire  privations  of 
savagery.  The  acme  of  capitalism  as  we  see  it  to-day 
demonstrates  its  incompatibility  with  the  socialization  of  the 
race  or  any  higher  development  of  the  race. 

Ill 

The  method  of  action  from  public  corporate  knowledge 
canuot  supplant  the  method  of  action  from  private  corporate 
knowledge  only  by  actually  doing  so.  It  is  useless  to  hope 
that  persons  engaged  in  injurious  or  wasteful  enterprises, 
which  support  them  at  the  expense  of  society  as  a  whole, 
will  give  them  up,  because  such  enterprises  are  shown  to  be 
injurious  to  society  as  a  whole.  Thousands  and  thousands 
of  persons  to-day  see  the  waste  of  competition,  but  bitterly 
oppose  public  cooperation  because  of  self-interest.  The  love 
of  money  is  so  much  stronger  than  the  love  of  humanity  that 
no  amount  of  argument  will  ever  make  the  capitalist  class 
surrender  its  privilege  of  using  social  energies  for  individual 
and  class  advantage.  Society  must  compel  capitalists  to 
abandon  expending  energy  by  the  fourth  law  of  motion,  the 
intellect,  by  introducing  action  by  public  corporate  knowl- 
edge, the  fifth  and  sixth  laws  of  motion,  the  moral  and 
social  senses,  to  compete  with  private  corporations,  and 
thus  supplant  them;  then  our  better  life  will  dawn  upon  us. 

Property  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  human  inventions. 
Without  it  man  is  a  helpless,  useless  animal.  Its  creation  is 
so  necessary  to  the  race  that  no  matter  how  accomplished, 
society  has  always  justified  it — slavery,  serfdom,  wage  labor. 
But  property  is  only  a  means  to  an  end — the  perfection  of 
humanity.  It  cannot  perform  its  function  under  the  control 
of  the  individual  except  in  the  most  wasteful  manner.  Com- 
petition in  society  is  simply  the  struggle  for  existence  seen 
throughout  nature  and  dissipates  its  energies  by  opposition, 
neutralization  and  waste,  instead  of  along  the  line  of 
least  resistance  selected  by  knowledge  and  morality,  the 


THE  APPLICATION   AND   CONCLUSION     463 

moral  and  social  senses.  Competition  expends  energy 
blindly  and  results  in  the  greatest  waste  instead  of  economy; 
yet  it  is  the  highest  form  of  expenditure  that  can  be  realized 
under  capitalism  and  individualism.  Under  it  humanity  can 
never  reach  perfection,  for  the  wealth  that  should  be 
expended  in  human  development  is  wasted  in  competition. 
See  how  foolishly  great  philanthropists  spend  their  money 
for  public  good ;  little  better  than  waste.  Charity  is  really 
worse.  The  individual  prompted  by  selfish  motives  can 
do  little  more  than  waste  energy.  To  raise  property  up  as  a 
god,  to  have  it  crush  the  aspirations  of  the  race  by  worship- 
ing it,  is  to  create  a  Frankenstein,  in  hopes  he  will,  perfect 
the  race  with  his  superhuman  strength,  when,  in  fact,  he 
turns  upon  it  and  destroys  it.  Man  may  as  well  have 
remained  a  savage  as  to  have  created  the  means  of  socializa- 
tion, wealth,  then  have  socialization  denied  him  on  account 
of  making  the  means  an  end  in  itself,  and  worshiping  it,  as 
capitalism  does  to-day.  To  create  property,  the  old  instinct 
of  the  clan,  the  love  of  kind,  the  production  of  all  for  all, 
had  to  be  set  aside  for  individual  acquisition,  thus  giving  a 
greater  incentive  to  production ;  but  little  would  one  have 
thought  then  that  the  time  would  come  when  the  love  of 
property  would  become  so  much  stronger  than  the  love  of 
kind,  that  is,  religion,  that  it  would  hinder  the  perfection  of 
the  race  as  it  does  to-day.  It  is  all  due  to  the  absence 
of  intelligence  and  morality  in  nature,  matter  and  energy; 
it  pursues  one  line  of  development  as  far  as  possible,  then 
takes  the  opposite;  the  socialism  of  the  primitive  tribe 
being  abandoned  for  individualism  in  order  to  create  wealth, 
because  it  could  not  be  initiated  in  any  other  way,  to  be 
abandoned  in  its  turn  when  social  acquisition  through 
cooperation  is  possible,  as  to-day.  It  is  to  property  that  we 
owe  the  monogamic  system  of  marriage,  an  institution  that 
enables  a  man's  children  to  inherit  what  he  owns.  It  is  to 
property  that  we  owe  civil  government;  for  civil  govern- 


464       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

ment  is  based  on  property  in  land.  After  doing  so  much 
for  the  race,  to  think  that  the  worship  of  property  is  to  keep 
mankind  eternally  from  once  more  entering  upon  a  relation- 
ship based  on  service  to  the  race,  based  on  religion,  because 
of  man's  abnormal  love  of  wealth,  is  indeed  a  sad  and  dis- 
tressing thought!  All  the  other  instincts  of  human  nature 
have  sunk  into  abeyance  before  this  all-consuming  power, 
the  love  of  money.  For  it  men  sacrifice  love,  honor,  relig- 
ion. It  has  reached  the  acme  of  its  power,  for  the  light  of 
the  social  sense  in  oriented  man  will  direct  this  blind 
instinct,  this  mob-like  frenzy,  love  of  money,  into  rightful 
channels,  and  wealth  will  yet  accomplish  its  true  function, 
that  of  perfecting  the  social  organism. 

The  form  society  takes,  let  it  be  feudalism  or  capitalism, 
depends  upon  the  moral  and  social  senses  of  the  given 
society,  and  not  upon  the  caprice  or  design  of  some  ruling 
class.  It  makes  no  difference,  be  the  form  of  economy 
slavery  or  wage  earning,  the  race  as  a  whole  adopts  it,  and 
it  is  upheld  by  the  whole  of  society,  by  the  oppressed  as  well 
as  the  oppressor,  and  one  is  as  responsible  for  it  as  the  other; 
because  it  is  a  result  of  the  moral  and  social  senses  and  not 
of  individual  preferences.  And  when  the  time  conies  in  a 
society  to  change  its  form  of  industry,  it  is  as  often  done  by 
the  oppressing  classes  as  the  oppressed,  if  not  more  often. 
The  great  socialists  of  Western  civilization,  William  Morris, 
John  Ruskin,  Eobert  Owen,  and  others,  have  also  been 
great  capitalists.  The  inauguration  of  cooperative  democ- 
racy will  come,  not  alone  from  the  oppressed,  but  from  the 
oppressors,  unconsciously  by  founding  schools,  consciously 
by  inventing  laws  that  will  more  equitably  distribute  prop- 
erty; unconsciously  by  forming  trusts,  consciously  by  work- 
ing as  active  reformers  educating  the  people  to  their  rights 
and  privileges  in  the  wealth  of  the  world. 

It  was  not  chance  that  made  slavery  a  form  of  industrial 
life,  or  feudalism,  or  capitalism ;  but  it  is  due  to  the  nature  of 


THE  APPLICATION   AND   CONCLUSION     465 

things,  the  development  of  the  moral  and  social  senses  of  the 
race.  The  industrial  systems  of  widely  different  peoples 
follow  identical  lines  of  development,  due  to  the  same  phys- 
ical conditions  and  to  similar  development  of  the  moral  and 
social  senses.  This  is  another  manifestation  of  the  law  of 
repetition.  The  height  of  civilization  depends  upon  the 
expenditure  of  energy  in  society.  If  the  expenditure  be 
according  to  the  fourth  law  of  motion,  the  intellect,  unmodi- 
fied by  the  fifth  and  sixth  laws  of  motion,  the  moral  and 
social  senses,  or,  according  to  a  low  form  of  the  moral  and 
social  senses,  the  civilization  will  be  low  in  development; 
but  if  it  be  from  a  high  form  of  the  moral  and  social  senses, 
then  it  will  be  high  in  development,  and  all  energy  will  be 
expended  along  the  line  of  least  resistance  or  greatest 
attraction. 

Economy  in  the  expenditure  of  human  energy  does  not 
mean  the  accomplishment  of  results  with  the  least  possible 
expenditure  of  energy;  but  the  realization  of  the  highest 
form  of  the  true,  the  beautiful,  the  good  and  the  useful, 
with  the  least  expenditure.  The  function  of  saving  human 
energy  is  not  the  accumulation  of  energy,  but  the  right 
expenditure  of  energy.  Man  accumulates  property  blindly, 
instinctively ;  but  its  true  function  can  only  be  realized  when 
it  is  expended  according  to  the  moral  and  social  senses,  then 
the  expenditure  will  be  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  race,  not 
of  the  capitalists  or  their  degenerate  offspring.  It  is  prepos- 
terous to  think  that  society  must  sit  idly  by  and  see  degener- 
ates waste  its  hard-earned  wealth.  The  twentieth  century 
by  its  half  century  mark  will  see  the  last  of  this  form  of 
crime. 

Some  day  in  the  not  distant  future  there  will  dawn  upon 
the  minds  of  the  capitalists  of  the  earth  a  true  social  sense 
which  will  make  them  see  their  duty  to  the  race;  and  there 
will  come  into  their  lives  a  true  moral  sense  which  will 
enable  them  to  put  their  knowledge  into  practice,  resulting 


466       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

in  religious  ecstasy,  the  greatest  feeling  known  to  the  human 
heart.  The  ideal  systems  of  socialism,  nationalism,  or 
social  democracy,  or  the  social  expenditure  of  energy,  as  we 
conceive  it,  may  never  be  adopted,  for  no  one  can  predict 
the  future  of  humanity  specifically;  but  the  truth  that  these 
reforms  stand  for,  which  is  now  smothered  in  our  system  of 
living,  will  appear  and  in  due  time  be  realized  in  the  life  of 
humanity.  How  slight  a  change  will  have  to  be  made  to 
realize  all  that  poet,  sage  and  prophet  have  hoped  for !  It  is 
not  so  much  a  change  of  laws  and  institutions  as  a  change  in 
feeling  and  thought — to  run  them  according  to  the 
spirit  and  not  the  letter.  It  is  not  so  much  a  denial  of 
private  ownership  of  property  as  a  definition  of  what  the 
rights  of  ownership  shall  be.  It  makes  little  difference 
whether  one  man  or  all  men  own  the  earth,  but  it  makes  all 
the  difference  in  the  world  how  the  earth  is  used.  The 
earth  is  for  the  use  of  all,  no  matter  who  owns  it.  If  the 
device  of  personal  property  keeps  the  irresponsible  classes 
from  wasting  the  wealth  they  produce,  it  is  a  good  thing ; 
but  when,  through  education,  through  development,  there 
are  no  irresponsible  classes,  then  private  ownership  keeps  all 
out  of  their  birthright,  perfect  development.  If  the  right  of 
the  race  to  the  use  of  the  earth  be  denied,  but  one  thing  can 
follow,  a  conflict  for  its  possession.  No  doubt  in  the  coming 
history  corporate  society  will  often  be  compelled  to  relieve 
individuals  and  corporations  of  their  trusts.  Property 
amongst  men  will  be  the  great  bone  of  contention  until 
human  existence  becomes  so  secure  and  so  reasonable  that 
property  will  become  like  sunlight,  air  and  water.  Then  the 
business  of  life  will  not  be  with  the  instinct  of  self-preserva- 
tion, egoism,  or  the  preservation  of  offspring,  love,  but  with 
the  instinct  of  perfecting  the  race,  religion.  The  principles 
that  control  the  civilized  man  to-clay  control  the  savage. 
The  object  of  life  to-day  is  food,  raiment,  shelter.  It  was  so 
in  savagery.  Civilization  is  little  more  than  highly  devel- 


THE  APPLICATION   AND   CONCLUSION     467 

oped  savagery.  Perfect  civilization  will  be  to  live,  not  to 
secure  life,  not  to  hand  life  down,  but  to  realize  a  perfect 
individuality  by  realizing  a  perfect  society.  And  to  say  that 
such  a  life  is  impossible  is  blasphemy,  and  he  who  speaks  it 
is  an  infidel  to  the  human  race  and  is  accursed ! 

IV 

Individual  morality  is  the  action  of  the  individual  as  con- 
trolled by  society.  Social  morality  is  the  conscious  action  of 
society  as  an  organism.  That  society  is  responsible  to  the 
individual  is  a  doctrine  unrecognized  except  by  isolated 
thinkers.  We  have  only  dim  adumbrations  of  social 
responsibility  in  such  doctrines  as  the  right  of  revolution, 
the  right  of  self-government,  the  right  of  religious  worship 
according  to  the  dictates  of  one's  own  conscience.  These 
rights  are  conceded  by  society  to  the  individual  in  propor- 
tion as  knowledge  is  distributed  throughout  society ;  society 
thus  acknowledging  its  responsibility  to  the  individual. 
Individual  morality  will  be  secured,  that  is,  vice,  sin  and 
crime  will  cease,when  society  is  able  to  control  the  individual 
through  the  moral  and  social  senses.  Social  morality  will  be 
secured,  that  is,  there  will  be  no  more  poverty,  struggle  for 
existence  and  war,  when  society  is  controlled  by  the  moral 
and  social  senses ;  then  the  functions  of  society  and  the  indi- 
vidual will  be  reciprocal.  The  present  control  of  the  church 
is  similar  to  what  the  ultimate  control  of  society  will  be  as 
an  organism  in  the  future;  that  is,  it  will  be  pyschical, 
spiritual,  not  physical. 

During  the  history  of  the  race  there  have  been  three  forms 
of  morality :  negative,  positive  and  social.  Negative  morality 
is  found  among  the  most  primitive  of  peoples;  positive 
among  civilized  races;  social  morality  is  the  morality  of  the 
most  advanced  persons  to-day,  and  will  be  the  morality  of 
the  individual  and  society  in  the  future.  The  first  form  of 
moral  control  dictated  what  actions  should  or  should  not  be 


468       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

performed.  It  appealed  to  the  negative  sanction  of  the 
moral  sense,  conscience.  Its  method  of  guiding  individual 
energy  was  that  of  inflicting  pain  for  its  expenditure  through 
prohibited  channels.  It  controls  through  fear,  superstition 
and  pain.  This  is  the  morality  of  the  tribe,  and  while  it  is 
very  intense,  it  is  very  low.  The  head  hunters  of  Borneo,  if 
prevented  from  obtaining  the  required  number  of  heads  to 
give  them  caste  with  their  tribe,  will  pine  away  and  die; 
their  compunction  of  conscience  is  so  intense.  Nearly  all 
savages  have  similar  moral  and  social  senses  resulting  in 
similar  customs. 

In  the  next  higher  development  of  morality,  society 
adopted  the  positive  sanction  of  the  moral  sense,  duty,  as 
the  cardinal  thing  in  morality.  Negative  morality  aimed  to 
control  actions  and  thereby  secure  good  conduct;  but  posi- 
tive morality  aims  to  purify  the  actor.  Its  command  is  not 
to  do,  but  to  be;  not  thou  shalt  not,  but  be  thou  pure  in 
heart,  be  noble,  be  good,  be  true,  do  unto  others  as  you 
would  have  others  do  unto  you,  going  on  the  erroneous  sup- 
position that  all  actions  prompted  by  good  motives  will  be 
good  of  necessity.  This  form  of  morality  appeals  chiefly 
to  the  positive  sanction  of  the  moral  sense,  duty.  Positive 
morality  aims  at  the  complete  suppression  of  the  anti-social 
energies.  In  its  extreme  form  it  manifests  itself  in  asceti- 
cism, as  in  Buddhism,  early  Christianity  and  pessimism  as 
taught  by  the  great  philospher,  Schopenhauer.  In  its  most 
reasonable  form  it  manifests  itself  in  the  doctrine  of  love, 
charity,  philanthropy.  It  teaches  the  brotherhood  of  man 
and  the  fatherhood  of  God,  in  the  latter  doctrine  adumbra- 
ting the  supreme  power  of  the  social  organism  when  the 
socialization  of  the  race  shall  have  been  realized. 

The  third  and  highest  form  of  morality  is  social  morality, 
morality  by  verifiable  public  corporate  knowledge,  morality 
by  the  social  sense,  the  morality  of  religion.  It  does  not  aim 
to  suppress  energies  or  to  purify  them,  but  to  show  the  indi- 


THE   APPLICATION   AND   CONCLUSION     469 

vidual  the  most  economic  way  of  expending  all  of  his  ener- 
gies,  and    thereby    doing    away    with    all    neutralization, 
opposition  and  waste  of  human  energy  whatsoever.      Its 
method  of  guiding  individual  energy  is  that  of  rewarding  its 
expenditures  in  chosen  channels  with  the  most  exhilarating 
happiness  possible  to  the  human  heart,  religious  ecstasy, 
making  the  individual's  social  functions  as  joy-producing  as 
his  animal  functions  now  are,  and  by  punishing  its  expendi- 
ture in  forbidden  channels  by  the  keenest  pain  known  to  the 
human  heart,  guilt,  despair,  misery.     Just  as  the  highest 
form  of  individual  action  is  from  the  intellect,  so  the  highest 
form  of  morality  is  from  the  social  sense.     Under  social 
morality  the  moral  sense  will  do  away  with  vice,  sin  and 
crime ;  the  social  sense  will  abolish  poverty,  the  struggle  for 
existence  and  war.     The  perfection  of  the  individual  will  bo 
secured  through  the  perfection  of  society.     Religion  will  be 
the  conscious  motor  power  of  the  individual  in  perfecting 
the  social  organism,  and  will  produce  the  most  ecstatic,  last- 
ing and  compensating  joy  known  to  the  human  heart.     The 
doctrine  of  social  morality  is  not  to  do,  or  to  be,  but  to  know. 
It  appeals  to  the  sanction  of  public  corporate  knowledge, 
the  social  sense.     The  highest  command  of  negative  morality 
is,  Thou  shalt  not;  of  positive  morality,  Be  pure  in  heart; 
of  social  morality,  Thou  shalt  know.     The  most  important 
thing  in  life  is  knowledge,  for  on  it  depends  every  thing  else. 
Thou  shalt  know  how  to  act  so  that  no  human  energy  can  be 
wasted,  is  the  new  commandment  of  the  religion  of  morality. 
The  first  form  of  morality  is  the  doctrine  of  authority ; 
the  second  is  the  doctrine  of  love;   the  third  is  the  doctrine 
that  public  corporate  knowledge  is  the  highest   tribunal. 
Negative  morality  restricts  the  expenditure  of  energy ;  posi- 
tive morality  purifies  it ;   social  morality  directs  it  into  the 
most  positive  economic  channels.      The  impotency  of  the 
negative  morality  is  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  action  con- 
trolled by  blind  feeling ;   it  simply  defeats  a  bad  action  by 


470       THE   SOCIALIZATION    OF   HUMANITY 

opposing  it.  This  is  morality  by  brute  force,  and  is  always 
accompanied  with  some  gross  superstition  for  a  social  sense. 
The  impotency  of  positive  morality  consists  in  the  errors, 
first,  that  there  are  two  kinds  of  human  energy,  good  and 
bad,  when  in  fact  all  energy  not  expended  according  to  pub- 
lic corporate  knowledge  is  more  or  less  bad ;  and,  secondly, 
that  good  energy,  a  desire  to  do  good,  a  good  motive,  can 
dispense  with  guidance  simply  because  it  is  good.  Positive 
morality  is  accompanied  with  an  unverifiable  social  sense, 
and  the  religious  worship  of  an  imaginary  God.  It  wastes 
its  energies  in  futile  work  and  vain  ceremonies.  It  is  use- 
less to  tell  individuals  to  do  unto  others  as  they  would  have 
others  do  unto  them,  when  the  individual  is  controlled  by 
self-interest.  This  would  be  an  open  field  in  a  gambling 
game,  an  interminable  conflict.  What  is  needed  is  not  only 
the  desire  to  do  good,  but  a  knowledge  of  how  to  act  so  that 
no  energy  can  be  wasted ;  for  waste  of  energy  and  evil  are  one 
and  the  same  thing.  It  takes  just  as  much  knowledge  to 
conserve  a  good  energy  as  a  bad  one ;  for  every  energy  not 
directed  by  verifiable  public  corporate  knowledge  is  wasted 
more  or  less.  Religion  based  on  social  morality  satisfies  the 
individual  in  his  endless  quest  for  a  greater  life  by  supple- 
menting his  life  with  the  great  life  of  the  social  organism. 
But  these  systems  of  morality  do  not  supplant  one  another, 
they  only  supplement  one  another.  The  morality  of  knowl- 
edge uses  the  machinery  of  negative  and  positive  morality,  the 
community,  the  church,  the  school,  the  state,  to  spread  its 
-'teachings;  and  positive  morality  but  needs  to  borrow  the 
.enlightenment  of  verifiable  public  corporate  knowledge  to 
expend  its  energies  perfectly.  Under  social  morality  relig- 
ion will  be  due  to  every  act  that  conserves,  protects  and  per- 
fects social  organization.  Morality  and  religion  will  sustain 
to  each  other  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect,  and  nothing 
will  produce  religion  but  morality,  and  life  will  be  composed 
of  the  reality  before  us  and  the  destiny  of  the  human  race. 


THE   APPLICATION   AND   CONCLUSION     471 

It  is  time  our  great  men  ceased  reading  new  ideas  into  old 
theologic  forms,  and  boldly  say  what  they  mean.  Just  as 
the  Greek  philosophers  were  handicapped  by  being  compelled 
to  interpret  the  truth  as  they  conceived  it  in  the  mytholog- 
ical terminology  of  their  day,  so  are  we  compelled  to  use  the 
terminology  of  Christianity  to-day  for  thought,  or  else  bear 
the  persecution  of  neglect,  lack  of  recognition,  intellectual 
ostracism.  What  indignity  did  not  that  fine  mind,  Auguste 
Comte,  suffer  in  being  compelled  to  live  on  charity  from  lack 
of  appreciation  and  support  by  his  age !  Think  of  the  bit- 
terness of  Arthur  Schopenhauer  at  sixty-five  and  unrecog- 
nized !  What  a  comment  on  the  civilization  of  the  nineteenth 
century  when  Herbert  Spencer,  owing  to  lack  of  patronage, 
seriously  contemplated  stopping  the  publication  of  his  Syn- 
thetic Philosophy  before  it  was  half  finished !  What  dicta- 
tion when  Charles  Darwin,  in  1859,  circumscribed  his  theory 
of  natural  selection  at  the  command  of  theology,  not  pub- 
lishing the  law  of  natural  selection  as  applied  to  the  race  in 
his  Descent  of  Man  until  1870!  How  the  influence  of 
Thomas  H.  Huxley,  John  Tyndall,  Ernst  Haeckel,  has 
been  limited  by  the  cries  of  theologians!  And  how  many 
lesser  lights  to-day,  teachers  in  colleges,  writers  in  maga- 
zines, editors  of  newspapers,  are  compelled  to  use  language 
to  conceal  the  truth,  as  the  Pythagoreans  of  old,  instead  of 
expressing  it ! 

V 

There  is  something  more  in  life  than  merely  to  live,  to 
exist.  To  live  for  the  human  race,  to  die  for  it,  if  need 
be,  is  religion,  the  supreme  happiness.  All  individual 
feelings  pale  into  insignificance  beside  it.  Religion  is  the 
summum  bonum  of  existence,  and  the  truth  will  never  be 
spoken  until  religion  is  the  motor  power  back  of  its  expres- 
sion; for  religion  is  the  only  triumphant  emotion  the  human 
race  possesses.  It  is  supreme  over  death,  oblivion,  and  all 


472       THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

the  foul-mouthed  slander  that  partisan  venom  can  spit,  with 
its  vile  and  corrupt  tongue.  Religion  alone  can  perfect  the 
race. 

The  reason  nothing  moral  can  be  done  in  society  to-day, 
no  reform  be  made,  no  improvement  secured,  is  because  we 
have  no  religion.  The  people  being  devoid  of  religion 
neither  demand  nor  expect  justice.  They  act  upon  the 
popular  fallacy  that  some  how  or  other,  in  the  unequal 
division  of  things,  they  are  going  to  get  the  big  end,  and 
are  deluded  with  this  treacherous  hope  into  acquiescing  in 
being  oppressed  and  exploited.  An  honest,  sincere  desire  to 
do  right  because  it  is  right,  to  do  unto  others  as  you  would 
have  others  do  unto  you,  is  unknown  in  practice  to-day. 
The  church  sits  idly  by  as  a  social  club  and  lets  its  function 
of  creating  the  moral  and  social  senses  go  unperformed. 
The  evils  it  denounces  are  trivial ;  the  ones  it  overlooks  and 
winks  at  gigantic.  The  great  Pope  of  Rome,  just  when 
Russia  and  Japan  are  upon  the  eve  of  declaring  war, 
denounces  the  wearing  of  decollete  gowns !  The  church  is 
almost  totally  devoid  of  religion.  The  masses  go  to  church 
from  superstitious  motives ;  the  privileged  classes  from  policy. 
Its  communicants  are  not  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  as  in 
the  days  of  faith;  but  more  often  with  holy  disgust. 

Life  is  almost  totally  devoid  of  religion.  It  is  hard,  cruel, 
niggardly.  The  pitiless  hand  of  greed  grasps  the  property 
of  the  world,  and  the  pallid  face  of  poverty  excites  no  sym- 
pathy. If  our  statesmen  were  religious,  they  would  serve  the 
people  instead  of  being  the  retained  attorneys  of  privileged 
individuals  and  classes.  They  would  be  statesmen  actuated 
by  the  holy  desire  to  serve  the  race  instead  of  the  selfish 
purpose,  as  to-day,  to  serve  party,  clients,  and  classes.  If 
the  public  press  was  imbued  with  religion  it  would  help 
to  make  all  humanity  sensitive  to  the  wrongs  of  even  its 
weakest  members,  instead  of  toadying  and  truckling  to  rich 
and  powerful  degenerates.  If  the  press  were  imbued  with 


THE  APPLICATION   AND   CONCLUSION     473 

religion,  it  would  be  dominated  by  moral  courage,  instead  of 
the  commercial  spirit  which  would  sell  man's  birthright  for 
thirty  pieces  of  silver.  If  the  school  were  religious,  then  our 
children  and  youth  would  have  developed  in  them  the  car- 
dinal virtues  as  well  as  the  intellectual  graces,  a  perfect 
character  as  well  as  a  perfect  physique.  Man  would  be 
adapted  to  nature  and  society  consciously,  and  the  teaching 
profession  would  be  the  greatest,  the  most  honorable  of  any 
in  all  history.  If  every-day  life  were  religious,  then  loving- 
kindness,  mutual  service,  cooperation  and  confidence  would 
result  in  the  socialization  of  the  race,  and  the  greatest  hap- 
piness to  the  greatest  number  would  be  realized. 

No  wonder  we  fail !  We  have  no  religion.  The  church 
has  forgotten  what  religion  is.  Science  has  not  learned. 
In  guarding  her  dogmas  the  church  has  let  their  spirit 
escape.  In  protecting  the  symbol  she  has  killed  the  thing 
symbolized.  Religion  is  the  great  dynamic,  the  great  power. 
It  alone  can  perfect  the  race.  It  can  cause  all  of  the  vast 
wealth  of  the  world,  now  wasted  in  wars,  in  gilded  aris- 
tocracies, in  cruel  plutocracies,  to  be  turned  to  the  develop- 
ment of  perfect  human  beings,  its  true  function.  All  thnt 
is  needed  is  the  spread  of  this  divine  fire,  so  that  it  will  com- 
pass the  earth  and  purify  the  entire  race.  When  the  world 
is  once  more  possessed  of  the  great  enthusiasm,  religion, 
guided  by  the  moral  and  social  senses  consciously  developed, 
then  the  socialization,  of  the  race  will  speedily  follow. 
Instead  of  men  being  ambitious  to  be  millionaires,  they  will 
be  ambitious  to  make  millions  of  human  beings  happy  by 
applying  the  moral  and  social  senses  to  existing  humanity; 
and  the  compensation  to  them  in  religious  ecstasy  will  be 
incalculably  more  joy-producing  than  the  materialistic  suc- 
cess of  to-day.  Instead  of  statesmen  plotting  and  planning 
to  increase  the  territory  of  their  respective  nations,  they  will 
plan  to  make  their  respective  nations  outdo  all  the  rest  of 
the  nations  of  the  world  in  the  economic  expenditure  of 


energy,  thus  destroying  privilege,  class  and  caste;  and  the 
glory  following  will  far  outshine  the  partisan  fame  a  fortu- 
nate statesman  Is  grudgingly  allowed  to-day.  And  scientists 
will  not  only  be  statical  investigators,  but  dynamic  agents 
applying  knowledge  to  human  ills.  And  the  churchman 
instead  of  bonding  all  his  energies  in  collecting  money  to 
support  the  various  missions  of  the  church  to  convert  the 
heathen  in  foreign  lands,  will  spend  his  time  and  energies  in 
applying  the  moral  and  social  senses  to  every  day  life,  real- 
izing religion  in  mutual  service,  in  the  reciprocal  function  of 
responsibility  and  protection  of  one  for  all  and  all  for  one; 
and  then  life  will  be  dominated  by  loving-kindness,  sym- 
pathy, intelligence,  peace  and  happiness,  instead  of  the 
interminable  turmoil  we  have  to-day.  Give  us  religion  and 
the  race  will  be  saved.  It  is  the  great  need  of  the  world 
to-day.  It  is  the  only  dynamic  that  can  mould  the  race  into 
one  vast  social  organism.  Without  religion  humanity 
stands  a  slave  to  necessity,  a  freak  of  chance,  a  blind  mon- 
ster; but  with  it,  it  is  the  master  of  nature,  the  mind  of  the 
universe,  the  great  God  the  poets  and  prophets  in  all  ages 
have  foretold  and  humanity  has  ever  longed  to  meet  face  to 
face! 

VI 

It  may  seem  visionary  to  many  to  think  that  the  numer- 
ous functions  of  the  social  organism  can  be  controlled  by 
verifiable  public  corporate  knowledge,  but  it  certainly  is  no 
more  difficult  of  realization  than  the  control  of  the  indi- 
vidual by  ideas,  by  reason,  was  before  it  was  accomplished ; 
and  that  has  been  fully  realized  in  the -civilized  individual  of 
to-day.  Is  it  not  really  more  remarkable  to  think  that 
civilization  can  be  a  result  of  blind  feeling  than  that  it  can 
be  controlled  by  verifiable  public  corporate  knowledge? 
The  facts  are  that  while  we  think  God  controls  society, 
it  is  really  controlled  by  blind  human  feelings,  expending 


THE  APPLICATION  AND   CONCLUSION     475 

themselves  in  opposition  and  neutralization,  instead  of 
according  to  the  line  of  least  resistance  selected  by  knowl- 
edge. If  we  correctly  see  how  society  is  run  to-day,  it 
will  help  us  vastly  to  see  how  it  should  bo  run  by  public 
corporate  knowledge,  and  we  wonder  why  the  socialization  of 
the  race  is  not  accomplished  as  soon  as  understood.  But 
the  social  organism  is  an  organic  growth  and  can  only  be 
realized  according  to  its  laws,  and  sometimes  too  much  haste, 
instead  of  resulting  in  progress,  results  in  retrogression. 
But  whatever  is  built  on  the  firm,  broad  knowledge  of  science 
will  surely  reach  perfection  in  the  course  of  time. 

All  the  grand  thoughts,  all  the  beautiful  imagery,  all 
the  great  truths  of  science  and  literature  can  be  expressed 
by  the  different  arrangement  of  the  twenty-six  letters  of  tho 
alphabet.  All  the  wonderful  music  of  the  world  can  bo 
expressed  by  the  different  combination  of  the  eight  notes  of 
the  musical  scale;  and  everything  can  be  numbered  with 
our  ten  digits.  All  the  manifold  machinery  of  man  is  but 
different  combinations  of  the  six  mechanical  powers.  Nature 
works  with  but  few  materials,  and,  being  devoid  of  mind,  its 
products  are  devoid  of  art  (the  most  economic  expenditure 
of  energies  and  materials);  but  when  society  reaches  public 
corporate  control,  it  will  be  all  that  nature  and  mind  can 
produce  with  the  energies  of  nature  and  the  energies  of  the 
individual  expended  in  the  most  economic  manner  possible ; 
hence  the  resulting  civilization  will  have  all  the  use  of  prac- 
ticality, all  the  beauty  of  art,  and  all  the  strength  of  nature. 
It  takes  but  a  few  feelings  to  produce  civilization,  for  they 
all  work  to  the  same  end,  but  by  slightly  different  methods; 
hence  opposition,  neutralization  and  waste,  and  in  the  final 
adjustment  a  low  grade  of  civilization.  A  knowledge  of 
human  feelings  and  emotions  distributed  throughout  society 
by  a  scientific  system  of  schools,  beginning  with  the  kinder- 
garten and  ending  with  death,  will  enable  society  to  direct 
its  energies  by  public  corporate  knowledge  into  public  cor- 


476      THE   SOCIALIZATION   OF   HUMANITY 

porate  channels.  This  will  be  perfect  socialization,  a  system 
of  life  in  which  the  individual  will  be  perfectly  corodinated 
with  society,  and  will  derive  as  much  pleasure  in  perfecting 
its  structure  and  performing  its  function  as  he  now  derives  in 
performing  individual  functions,  almost  his  sole  source  of 
happiness  to-day. 

When  the  law  of  action  from  public  corporate  knowledge 
is  applied  to  society  as  a  whole,  then  the  equilibrium  of  the 
social  organism  as  an  organism  with  its  environment  will  be 
consciously  secured.  Order  and  progress  will  be  the  moving 
equilibrium  of  the  social  organism  as  structure  and  function 
are  of  the  animal  organism.  The  realization  of  this  desidera- 
tum with  the  energies  now  at  work  is  but  a  question  of  time. 
The  perfection  that  the  human  race  has  dreamed  of  since  its 
infancy  to  be  realized  in  another  life  is  a  prophecy  of  the 
life  to  be  realized  here  on  earth  when  the  race  is  controlled 
by  the  moral  and  social  senses.  There  is  not  a  particle  of 
doubt  but  that  the  application  of  knowledge  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  individual  and  the  perfection  of  society  will  result 
in  just  as  much  improvement  in  them  as  the  control  of  the 
physical  energies  of  nature  and  the  development  and  perfec- 
tion of  plants  and  animals  resulted  in  them ;  the  problem  is  to 
make  the  application.  The  race  in  the  nineteenth  century 
unconsciously  did  much  to  perfect  the  individual  and 
society ;  but  now  that  it  knows  the  true  function  of  knowl- 
edge, the  ultimate  perfection  of  the  individual  and  society 
is  but  a  question  of  time. 

By  commencing  our  investigation  at  the  beginning  of 
things  and  ending  it  with  the  socialization  of  the  race,  we 
have  compassed  the  entire  field  of  knowledge  in  our  survey. 
We  lose  much  at  the  start  out  by  rejecting  the  theological 
social  sense,  Christianity,  and  not  reading  our  philosophy 
into  it ;  but  what  we  lose  in  the  initiative  will  be  more  than 
compensated  for  when  once  the  world  is  set  aright  so  that  it 
can  pursue  its  destiny  consciously,  knowingly,  scientifically. 


THE  APPLICATION  AND   CONCLUSION     4?; 

Sooner  or  later  orientation  had  to  come,  and  we  might  as 
well  break  the  ice  as  any  one,  for  the  ultimate  destiny  of 
humanity  is  conscious  existence,  and  cannot  be  achieved 
otherwise.  There  is  no  use  to  drag  the  world  of  error  with 
us  when  by  one  heroic  struggle  it  can  be  cast  into  oblivion 
forever,  and  the  progress  of  humanity  be  henceforth 
impeded  only  by  the  necessary  obstacles  in  the  nature  of 
things. 

At  vast  intervals  of  time  in  the  history  of  the  race  there 
have  occurred  great  epochs  of  improvement  in  civilization 
with  prophecies  of  a  perfect  existence  yet  to  come.  It  makes 
no  difference  what  race  we  study,  we  find  the  same  history 
in  all.  In  the  East,  Brahminism  was  followed  by  Buddhism 
with  a  promise  of  Nirvana;  in  the  West,  Judaism  was  fol- 
lowed by  Christianity  with  a  promise  of  heaven.  It  is  this 
perfect  existence,  dreamed  of  by  the  race  since  its  beginning, 
the  socialization  of  man,  that  we  enter  upon  to-day.  And  the 
step  we  take,  whether  it  be  large  or  small,  is  left  to  the 
world  to  judge. 


INDEX 


Adaptation,  80. 

Allen,  Grant,  on  British  Aristocracy, 
455,  note. 

Analogy  between  animal  and  social 
organism,  155. 

Analogy  between  senses  and  the  in- 
tellect and  the  moral  and  social 
senses,  180. 

Angelo,  Michael,  168. 

Animal  mechanics,  Chap.  VI. 

Animal,  origin  and  function  of,  70,71. 

Animal  skeleton,  origin  of,  63-65. 

Anthropomorphism,  83,  84-87. 

B. 

Bacon,  Francis,  38.  note. 
Baldwin,  J.  Mark,  28. 
Bible,  lack  of  confidence  in,  159. 
British  aristocracy,  by  Grant  Allen, 

455,  note. 
Bruno,  213. 
Buddha,  165. 
Burnand,  Dr.,  60. 
By-products,  importance  of,  225. 

C. 

Capitalism,  465-461. 

Capitalism,  how  justified,  420, 421. 

Character,  293,  353. 

Christianity,  disbelief  in,  159;  a  so- 
cial sense,  161-170;  effete,  174-177; 
Christianity  and  education,  181 ;  re- 
lation to  common  man,  191, 192;  in 
relation  to  right  and  wrong,  283; 
inadequacy  of,  shown  in  our  imper- 
fect life  to-day,  263,  331-333,  336-338. 

Christianity,  failure  of,  416;  how  be- 
lieved in  to-day,  450,  451. 

Christianity's  perverted  concept  of 
religion,  433,  434. 

Church,  origin  of,  208;  Church  and 
moral  sense,  223;  Church's  greatest 
imperfection,  inactivity  336;  what 
Church  should  be,  338,  339. 

Cities,  position  of,  determined  by  me- 
chamcal  principles,  66,  67. 

Civilization,  basis  of,  3,  4. 

Classics,  184. 

Class  consciousness,  454-456. 

Class  society,  impossibility  of  its  ex- 
isting for  any  time,  443, 444;  among 
ants  and  bees ;  434. 

Class  society,  301. 

Clothes,  determined  by  mechanical 
principles,  67. 

Comte,  August e,  210. 


Conscience,  142. 

Consciousness,  definitions  of,  172, 173. 

Conservatism,  75,  328. 

Cope,  Prof.  E.  D.,  20,  27,  64,  note. 

Corporations,  functions  of,  302. 

Corporations,  public  vs.  private,  426. 

Corporations  and  morality,  146, 147. 

Crime,  what  is,  438. 

D. 

Darwin,  Charles,  20,  168,  210,  471. 
Death,  origin  and  function  of,  69,  70. 
Degeneration,  198. 
Democracy,  119. 
Design,    proof  of  supernaturalism 

refuted,  87,  88,  93,  94. 
Division  of  labor  in  nature  causes 

plants  and  animals  and  sex,  70-73. 
Dolbear,  Prof.  A.  E.,  32,  note,  60. 
Domestic  animals,  110. 
Draper.  Dr.  John  W.,  386,  note. 
Dream  life,  139. 

E. 

Economy,  what  is,  466. 

Education,  function  of,  105;  what  it 
should  be,  183,  et  seq. 

Education  to-day  has  no  philosophy, 
182;  wrong  in  theory,  184;  false 
education,  403-406;  object  of  educa- 
tion, 410. 

Ego,  origin  of,  58,  et  seq. 

Ely,  Prof.  R.  T..  298,  note. 

Emotions,  origin  of.  53,  et  seq. 

Energy,  8;  its  laws,  15-18,  229;  radi- 
ant and  gravitant,  22. 

Energy,  human,  130,  131;  uncon- 
trolled, ends  in  vice  and  tragedies, 
224. 

Energies,  identical  with  ideas,  44-45. 

Ethics,  supreme  law  of,  Chap.  XII. 

Evolution  and  religion.  240. 

External  repetition.  22;  example  of, 
27;  definition,  29,30. 

Eye,  origin  of,  42,  43,  92. 

F. 

Federation  of  nations,  398. 

Food,  kind  of,  used  due  to  mechanical 

laws,  67. 

Foster,  Dr.  Michael,  8. 
Freedom  of  speech,  293. 
Free  speech,  effect  of,  342. 
Free  trade  and  war,  401,  402. 
Free  will,  Chap.  XVII. 
Free  will,  what  it  is,  349,  et  seq. 


478 


INDEX 


479 


G. 

Genius,  234. 

Genius  and  moral  and  social  sense, 
151,  152. 

Ghosts,  103. 

Gibbon,  Edward,  450. 

Gilmore,  George  W.,  433,  note. 

Good  and  bad,  relative  terms,  801, 
204. 

God,  existence  can't  be  proved,  102; 
what  God  Is,  123,  270,  345,  346,  407  • 
God  to-day,  138;  God  takes  place  of 
social  sense,  94, 95;  God  and  con- 
science, 140,  141 ;  God  cannot  save 
race,  144;  God  theory,  231;  origin 
of  word  God,  258;  God  a  prophecy 
of  humanity,  310;  the  God  hypoth- 
esis, Chap.  XVI;  God  and  book  of 
Job,  313,  315;  why  God  is  sacred, 
314;  God  and  hero-worship,  315;  no 
signs  of  God  in  society,  history,  na 
ture.  318  et  seq. ;  God  and  nature, 

H. 

Hearing,  origin  of,i34,  et  seq. 

Heredity,  35. 

Heresy  that  Ostracises  to-day,  451. 

Hero,  the  true,  369. 

Hudson,  W.  H.,  189. 

Humanity,  its  story,  111-116, 118. 

Human  development,  laws  of,  113, 

114. 

Human  nature,  change  of,  99. 
Huxley,  Prof.  T.  H.,  453,  note. 
Hypocrisy,  144,  341. 

I. 

Ideas,  identical  with  external  ener- 
gies, 44-47;  use  of,  171;  world  as 
idea,  76,  77. 

Imagination,  138, 139. 

Imitation,  208. 

Immortality  of  soul,  reasons  for,  383, 
384;  nature  of,  420,448;  impossibil- 
ity of,  430. 

Impiety,  the  true,  343. 

Individual,  90,  91,  98, 107;  individual 
vs.  social  nature,  140,  229, 230,  231 ; 
individual  specialized,  166,  211,  214; 
two  kinds  of  individuals,  210;  indi- 
vidual, the  perfect,  160,  161 ;  indi- 
vidual and  energies  of  nature,  897; 
individual  improvement  of  by  so- 
ciety, 399,  400,  407,  408;  individuals 
do  not  apply  knowledge  to  self, 
409,  410;  individuals,  two  natures 
of,  206,  207,  355,  358;  individual's 
rights,  362,  363. 

Individualism,  112,  113;  waste  of  en- 
ergy of,  116,  117;  individualism,  or- 
igin of,  121 ;  has  done  all  it  can  do 
in  civilization,  178;  individualism 
and  property,  225,226,;  Individual- 
ism, sheer,  378;  Individualism  is  re- 
ally immoral,  448,  462,  463. 

Infidelity,  two  kinds,  386:  infidelity 
and  religion,  430. 

Ingersoll,  R.  G.,  344. 


Insane  persons  and  reform.  165 

Instinct,  99, 100. 

Institutions,   primary  function  of, 

234,  293;  when  they  end,  330.  331; 

society  responsible  for,  356, 357,  35y. 
Intellect,  function  of,  89;  origin  of, 

47-49. 

Intelligence,  nature  of,  114. 
Internal  energy,  its  forms.  104. 
Internal  repetition,  21,  24, 25, 208, 209; 

example  of  26-28;  definition  of ,  29. 

J. 
Jesus,  165,  213,  342;  teachings  of  and 

socialization.  459,  460. 
Joy,  religious,  243. 
Justice,  law  of,  440 

K. 

Kant,  Immanuel,  90,  345. 
Kidd,  Benj.,  386,  note. 
Know,  how  to  know,  185,  186. 
Knowledge,   its  use,  2,   171;   world 

halting  for,  179;  knowlege  makes 

all    responsibility,    Chap.     XVII; 

what  knowledge  is.  79-81  et  seq. 
Knowledge  produces  crime,  refuted, 

436-438. 

L. 

Laissez-faire,  419,  420. 

Lange,  Prof.  F.  A.,  60,  note,  81. 

Language,  292;  absurdity  in  teach- 
ing language,  405-406. 

Laws  of  nations,  6. 

Lawson,  John  D..  439,  note. 

Le  Bon,  Gustave,  170,  note. 

Lecky,  W.  H.,418. 

Leibnitz,,  185. 

Life,  origin  of,  32,  33,  35,  Chap.  Ill; 
life,  explanation  of,  37;  nve  types  of, 
67,  68;  length  increased  by  social- 
ization, 221;  life  and  mind  insep- 
arable, 34. 

Loeb,  Prof.  Jaques,  39,  40. 

Love,  origin  of,  54  et  seq.,  104;  love, 
biologic,  434;  love  and  religion,  484, 
436;  love,  the  language  of,  56. 

Lucretius,  79,  note. 

Luys,  Prof.  J..  27.  28. 

M. 

Man,  what  he  is,  1,  2,  60,  51. 

Marriage,  why  sacred,  260. 

Martyrdom,  what  it  is,  363. 

Martyrs,  164,  165,  211,  218,  214,  257. 

Materialism,  59,  60;  materialism  of 
life,  306;  of  to-day,  288. 

Matter,  dynamic  theory  of,  8,  9. 10; 
its  possibilities,  296,  309, 313. 

Mechanics,  animal,  Chap.  VI. 

Metaphysics,  76,  83  et  seq. 

Might  vs.  right,  421. 

Mind,  its  limits,  6, 7,  84,  85;  origin  of, 
45,  46  et  seq.,  98;  what  mind  is,  50, 
51,  154;  reaction  to  environment, 
16;  product  of  senses,  38;  mind 
compared  to  social  sense,  287,  888. 

Money,  398.  422,  423,  441,  442. 

Monism,  235,  et  seq. 


480 


INDEX 


Morality,  origin  of,  119,  120;  what  it 
is,  121, 123;  produced  by  society  not 
God,  124;  three  kinds  of,  467,  268,  et 
teg.;  highest  kind,  469,  scientific 
morality,  Chap.  XVIII. 

Moral  sense,  origin  of,  115,  131,  et 
seg.;  151,  152.  232,  moral  sense  and 
God,  135,  et  seg. ;  static  in  function, 
176, 177,  218;  can  be  developed  con- 
sciously, 145,  146;  why  imperfect, 
146, 147;  moral  sense,  what  it  will 
accomplish,  195,  et  seg. ;  created  by 
society,  213;  conflict  between  moral 
and  social  sense,  215,  et  seg.;  gov- 
ernment by  moral  sense  alone  is 
dangerous,'218;  moral  sense  to-day 
often  low,  219;  nature  of  moral 
sense,  233.  234;  relation  of  moral 
and  social  senses,  431,  432.  See 
Chap.  X. 

Morris,  Wm.,  464. 

Moses  and  religion,  258. 

Motion,  laws  of,  11,  12;  4th  law  01, 
Chap.  IX,  107, 108;  5th  law  of,  Chap. 
X,  134,  135;  6th  law  of,  Chap.  XI. 

Mull  on  hypnotism,  45. 

Munhall  and  Moody,  451. 

Muscular  sense,:origin  of,  45. 

N. 

Nationalization  of  public  utilities, 
439,440. 

Naturalistic  concept  of  ^things,  3, 
Chap.  I. 

Naturalism  vs.  Supernaturalism, 
Chap.  VIII. 

Natural  selection,  law  of,  20. 

Nature  and  God,  388,  389,  396. 

Nature,  unity  of,  255,  256. 

Nature  very  simple,  476,  477. 

Nature,  waste  of  energy,  12,  13, 14; 
nature  without  choice,  111,  192,  224, 
425,  446,  447;  nature  perfectly  im- 
moral, 119, 120;  nature,  continuity 
of,  12. 

Nordeau,  Max,  307,  note. 

O. 

Omar  and  God,  313. 

Order,  three  forms  of,  15  et  seg. ;  rela- 
tion to  progress,  64,  65. 

Order  not  a  proof  of  the  supernatu- 
ral, 84, 87, 88. 

Organic  and  Inorganic,  differences 
between,  23. 

Organs  of  society,  300. 

Originality,  168. 

Owen,  Robert,  464. 

P. 

Panics,  192. 

Peace  conference,  402,  403. 

People,  lack  of  religion  cause  of  all 

our  misery,  473. 

Persecution,  function  of,  293,  294. 
Phenomena,  three  classes,  14  et  eeg. 
Philosopher,  the  true,  61. 
Plants,  origin  and  function  of,  70,  (t 

seg. 
Pope  Leo  XIII,  416. 


Power  back  of  things,  what  it  is,  123. 

Primates,  110. 

Professions  will  disappear,  444,  et  seg. 

Progress,  74,  75,  395. 

Property. origin  of,  225;  and  civiliza- 
tion, 441 ;  how  it  should  be  held  to- 
day, 452,  461,  et  seq. ;  property  and 
society,  400. 

Protoplasm,  36. 

Purpose,  none  in  nature,  109> 

R. 

Race,  plasticity  of,  447. 

Realism  and  idealism,  Chap.  VII. 

Reformers,  297;  how  defeated  by 
prejudice,  439. 

Religion,  origin  of,  54,  et  seg.,  268; 
language  of  religion,  56;  religion 
and  superstition,  102;  religion  and 
internal  energy,  104, 105;  function 
of  religion  to-day,  244,  264,  432,  433; 
religion  and  war,  265 ;  definition  of 
religion,  238-240, 242, 245, 254,  255,  256, 
257,  267;  religion  and  great  nations, 
241,  250,  253;  joy  of  religion,  243; 
true  religion,  436;  religion  will 
perfect  race,  399 ;  what  religion  is. 
411, 412-417  inclusive;  not  dependent 
on  God  and  immortality,  418,  419; 
dependent  on  morality,  430, 431 ;  re- 
ligion and  the  hero,  257 ;  religion  an 
instinct,  244, 248;  God  and  religion, 
249,  252,  270;  our  civilization  and 
religion,  251 ;  theology  interpreted 
in  terms  of  monism,  254;  lack  of 
religion  destroys  nations,  252,  253; 
religion  and  science,  253,  254 :  relig- 
ious services,  257 ;  religion  in  gen- 
eral, Chap.  XIII;  religion  the  dyna- 
mic of  life,  193;  religion,  relation 
to  schools,  187;  scientists  and  re- 
ligion, 188;  religion  and  energies, 
281 ;  religion,  absence  of  in  ail  civil- 
ization to-day,  471,  et  seg. ;  absence 
of  in  life,  472,  in  the  lives  of  our 
statesmen,  472,  in  the  school,  473, 
in  the  church,  474. 

Repetition,  law  of, internal,  26-28;  law 
of  eternal,  27,  395,  Chap.  II. 

Repetition,  law  of  in  universe,  21, 22; 
explanation  of  the  origin  of  the 
senses,  Chaps.  IV,  V;  laws  of,  in  or- 
ganic nature,  24,  25;  in  inorganic 
nature,  26. 

Reproduction,  origin  of,  23;  repro- 
duction and  religion,  256. 

Responsibility,  Chap.  XVII. 

Revolution,  peaceful,  452. 

Right,  what  it  is,  122. 

Rights,  153. 

Romanes,  Prof.  George  J.,  45. 

Ruskin,  John,  464. 

Ryder,  Prof.  John,  69,  note 

S. 

Savages,  189;  savages  and  religion, 

255.  261. 
School,  the  function,  189,  370:  lack  of 

religion  causes  failure  of,  474. 
Schopenhauer,  Arthur,  76, 168. 


INDEX 


481 


Science's  aspect  to  dynamism,  298. 

Science,  conflict  of,  with  religion,  214. 

Science,  what  it  teaches,  2;  function 
of,  194, 195;  why  it  should  be  studied, 
271. 

Seagwick,  W.  T.,  36,  note. 

Self -consciousness,  51,  59,  81.  et  teq. 

Sense  of  smell,  origin  of,  53-55. 

Senses,  origin  of,  Chaps,  IV,  V,  124; 
senses  due  to  external  energy,  40: 
function  of,  41,  42. 

Sex,  origin  and  function  of,  72-74. 

Shakespeare,  William,  168. 

Sight,  origin  of,  42,  43. 

Small,  Albion  W.,  441. 

Social  dynamics,  Chap.  XV,  299. 

Socialization,  the  beginning  of,  477. 

Socialization  of  humanity,  Chap. 
XIX;  what  it  will  do,  286;  how 
come  about,  464. 

Social  organs,  how  they  differ  from 
animal  organs,  221,  222. 

Social  organism,  Chap.  XIV;  nature 
of,  273,  274,  393,  894;  analogy  be- 
tween social  organism  and  animal 
organism,  275,  276,  278,  279;  radical 
difference  between,  277 ;  what  part 
of  race  Is  a  social  organism,  278; 
comparison  of  the  mind  and  the 
social  organism,  280;  social  organ- 
ism to-day,  281 ;  the  social  organ- 
ism's real  analogon,  282,  283;  gen- 
eral discussion  of  the  social  organ- 
ism, 377,  426,  427. 

Social  organism  vs.  Individual,  423, 
et  teq. 

Social  responsibility.  367,  368, 441. 

Social  sense,  origin  of,  115,  151,  152; 
what  it  is,  160,  et  teq. ;  sacred,  167, 
168;  science,  true  social  sense,  170, 
171;  must  have  verifiable  social 
sense  or  the  race  will  become  ex- 
tinct, 175,  176;  social  sense  has  to 
do  with  progress,  177;  what  It  will 
accomplish,  195,  196;  true  function 
of  the  social  sense,  205, 206;  scien- 
tific knowledge  is  true  social  sense, 
191 ;  social  sense  created  by  society, 
213;  conflict  between  the  social  and 
the  moral  sense,  215,  et  seq. ;  social 
sense  and  the  mind  compared,  297, 
298;  what  the  social  sense  is,  171,  et 
teq.,  181:  what  life  by  the  social 
sense  will  be,  220;  science  and  so- 
cial sense,  419;  the  social  sense 
hard  to  conceive,  289;  science  as  a 
social  sense,  419. 

Society  conscious,  227,  228;  must  be 
controlled  by  the  moral  and  social 
senses,  233,  234. 

Society,  function  of,  223,  224;  society 
self-sufficing,  365,  366. 

Society's  methods  of  perfectionment, 
157, 158;  society  by  verifiable  public 
corporate  knowledge,  303,  305. 

Society,  organization  of,  opposite  to 


animal  organization,  158. 
Society  takes  place  of  God,  95.96;  un- 
conscious society,  100, 101. 
Socrates,  165,  213,  450. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  definition  of  life, 

30;  mentioned,  33,  451,  471. 
Spirits,  103. 
Statesmen  and  dynamism,  299;  lack 

of  religion  causes  corruption,  473- 

475. 
State  takes  the  place  of  the  Church, 

425. 
Synthesis,  final  of   Life,  Mind  and 

Society,  Chap.  XVIII. 
Super-naturalism  and  religion,  102. 

T. 

Tarde,  M.,28. 
Tariff,  398. 
Taylor,  E.  B.,  152. 
Teachers  In  colleges,  183. 
Teleological  language  unavoidable, 

Temperature  sense,  origin  of,  44. 

Theology  and  science,  471. 

Theological  social  sense.  382,  Chap. 
XVI ;  not  believed  in,  432, 433,  note ; 
the  world  sick  of,  450. 

Things,  knowledge  of  things  in  them- 
selves possible,  83,  84. 

Touch,  origin  of  sense  of,  40.  41. 

Truth,  cause  of  man's  search  for,  1 ; 
definition  of,  91;  importance  of  ut- 
tering, 198, 199,  200, 205,  228;  funda- 
mental concept  of  things,  3. 

Tyndall,  Prof.  John,  6,  26. 

U. 

Universal  process,  6,  31, 86. 
Universe,   the  difficulty  of  conceiv- 
ing, 5,  6;  an  organism,  5,  6. 
University  curricula,  183. 

V. 

Variation,  24;  origin  of,  69. 
Vice,  212. 

Virtue,  149,  159,  212. 
Voltaire,  344. 

W. 
War,  826,  327,364;  what  will  end  It, 

401. 

Ward,  Lester  F.,  451. 
Waste  of  energy  in  nature,  6,  12,  et 

teq. 

Wealth  greed  of,  explanation  of,  284. 
Will,  origin  of,  53  et  teq. ;  the  world 

as,  89,  90. 

Will,  Thomas  E.,  451. 
Wilson,  E.  B.,  36,  note. 
World's  condition  to-day  as  to  the 

new  gospel,  449,  450. 
Worlds,  the  three,  Chap.  XVIII. 
Worship,  absurdity  or  modern,  334- 

336. 
Wundt,  William,  32.  note,  59,  note. 


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